
Qass 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



LIFE { 

VEKACITY 

OF 

THE BOOK OF GENESIS 



LONDON 

PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO, 

NEW-STREET SQUARE. 



THE 



VERACITY oe the book oe GENESIS 



WITH THE 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE INSPIRED HISTORIAN 



BY THE 



REV. WILLIAM H. HOARE, M,A. 

w 

LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND AUTHOR OF 

LETTERS TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR GEORGE GREY, BART. ON MR. FOX'S SCHEME OF 

EDUCATION," " OUTLINES OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY," ETC. ETC. 



1867 ;,-J 

,© LONDON O 
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 
1860 



The right of translation is reserved 



& 



?J ^5 



[A/ 



.ri<- 



PREFACE. 



The Scriptures of the Old Testament have long 
been the favourite ground of attack with the 
opponents of revelation. Those who would engage 
in its defence must therefore necessarily occupy the 
same ground, and not too securely reckon on the 
safety of the citadel while they suffer the outposts 
to be taken with indifference. It has indeed been 
maintained, that a pure and spiritual religion can 
have nothing to do with remnants of Judaism, nor 
the faith of Christ need any support from preceding 
and less perfect dispensations* Nay, with some 
even orthodox writers the disposition has been 
manifested to disclaim for the Christian faith in its 
essential characteristics any necessary dependence 
on the former covenant, and to assert for it a suffi- 
ciency of evidence within its own immediate and 
peculiar sphere. The prophecies themselves, whose 
remarkable fulfilment has ever been accounted one 

A 4 



vi Preface. 

great leading evidence for the truth of our holy re- 
ligion, existed, these writers remind us, not in the 
sacred volume alone, but currently among the whole 
Jewish people, and partially also amongst the Gen- 
tile nations of the world. " I do not see/' says a 
late learned writer of our own Church, " how it 
would injure any part of the argument on which 
our belief of Christianity is properly founded, if the 
historical books of the Old Testament had not been 
handed down to us at all. It is the adversary of 
Christianity who commonly appeals to the Old 
Testament, that being the side on which he deems 
the proof of revelation to be weakest." And. he 
endorses the saying of Paley, that " We ought not 
to make Christianity answer with its life for every 
fact recorded in the Old Testament." l 

At the same time, it may appear to many minds 
impossible practically to separate either the pro- 
phetic from the historical parts, or the entire books 
of the Old Testament from those of the New. So 
long as they are bound up in one volume, and that 
volume is in every one's hands in its present form, 
it is difficult to see how any other impression can 
be popularly entertained, but such as shall associate 
the two Testaments in necessary connection, so 
that whatever shakes the credit of the one must in 

1 Dean Lyall, Preparation of Prophecy, ch. viii. Rivmgton, 1854. 



Preface. vii 

some measure weaken the authority of the other. 
There is, besides, in the history of the Old Testa- 
ment such a variety of topics, and so large a collec- 
tion of facts, coming in contact at every turn with 
the common events of history, and therefore ob- 
viously challenging comparison with those events, 
and leading to a variety of criticism from every 
quarter; that to shun that criticism, and hide our 
eyes from the light of any fresh discoveries, would 
imply either unpardonable indolence, or a defective 
appreciation of the strength of those arguments on 
which the inspiration of the Scripture rests. When 
we think of the great strides which science is every 
day making, the many discoveries of modern travel 
and research, to say nothing of the advantage ac- 
cruing from the possession and collation of so 
many new manuscripts and ancient versions of the 
Scriptures, it is among the first duties of the 
Christian philosopher to bring his faith to the test 
of these discoveries, and to seek a fair adjustment 
of any differences which in the course of argument 
and the conflict of opinion may chance to arise. It 
has often proved — and who can tell how often it may 
prove again? — that persevering industry and ad- 
vancing science have been of excellent use in clear- 
ing up Scripture difficulties, and bringing out the 
meaning of disputed passages. The readers of 



viii Preface. 

Butler will remember a passage in Ms " Analogy •■ 
which greatly encourages this hope, where he says, 
" If ever the whole scheme of Scripture comes to be 
understood before the restitution of all things, and 
without miraculous interpositions, it must be in the 
same way as natural knowledge is come at : by the 
continuance and progress of learning and of liberty, 
and by particular persons attending to, comparing 
and pursuing, intimations scattered up and down 
it, which are overlooked and disregarded by the 
generality of the world Nor is it at all in- 
credible that a book, which has been so long in the 
possession of mankind, should contain many truths 
as yet undiscovered. For, all the same phenomena, 
and the same faculties of investigation, from which 
such great discoveries in natural knowledge have 
been made in the present and last age, were equally 
in the possession of mankind several thousand years 
before. And possibly it might be intended that 
events, as they come to pass, should open and ascer- 
tain the meaning of several parts of Scripture." l 
So far then from being surprised at any new endea- 
vour to throw light on the page of Scripture, — so 
far from shunning comparison with any new sources 
of information, — such inquiries should be rather en- 

1 Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion, part. ii. chap. iii. 



Preface, ix 

tertained with ardour, and hailed as efficient helps 
to a better understanding of the sacred text. 

It is at the same time to be lamented, that in the 
excess of critical zeal some have ventured rashly to 
compromise essential truths of the Christian faith, 
and professing by some new lights to explain the 
Scripture, have virtually explained it away. Some, 
for instance, have run into the absurdity of deny- 
ing all miracles, and openly rejecting whatever in 
Divine revelation cannot be brought under the deno- 
mination and order of natural events. They judge 
of everything by a spurious idea of reason ; i.e. they 
measure it by their own notions of what ought to be, 
— by what, they think, accords with "general laws 
of nature," with the early " traditions of nations," 
or with the " religious consciousness of the indi- 
vidual." The earlier Kationalist came forward, it 
is true, in defence, as he thought, of Christianity, 
and not in opposition to it. It was upon the pub- 
lication of " one of the most formidable attacks," as 
Professor Powell well calls it 1 , "which the cause 
of Christianity had ever sustained, under the name 
of the Wolfenbuttel Fragments, ascribed to Lessing 
(1773 — 1778)," that Paulus, Eichhorn, and other 
learned men of the Rationalistic school, took up 

1 Order of Nature, Essay iii. § 2. 



x Preface. 

this new ground on the side, as they believed, of 
the true faith. But as they too easily joined the 
adversary in the denial of whatever is supernatural 
or miraculous, it is easy to understand, — what in 
fact actually happened, — that they formed but a 
stepping-stone for others, who, with bolder hand 
and greater consistency, proceeded to deny, not the 
miraculous parts alone, but all the chief and dis- 
tinctive doctrines of Scripture — the Incarnation, 
for example, the Atonement, the Eesurrection, and 
most other articles of the Creed, and this for no 
better reason than because of the miraculous nature 
of these objects of belief, and the mere fact of their 
transcending the limits of human knowledge and 
experience. What is this, but under the name of 
Christianity to revive the worst errors of the 
avowed sceptic of the days of Hume and Yoltaire ? 
and with the best intentions, perhaps, of promoting 
the cause of truth, to make a large and fatal con- 
cession to its worst enemies? 1 It is easy to speak 
of the " natural " interpretations, or of the " ra- 



1 We speak especially of Strauss may be spreading amongst us. It 

and his followers, the " Licht- is also a fact to which we should 

freunde," or " Friends of Light/' not shut our eyes, that these 

as they are apt to call themselves opinions sprung originally from our 

in Germany. Not that in Eng- own country in the last century, 

land we can boast ourselves free and they are now returning to us 

from the infection ; nor can we well with interest. Froude's Nemesis 

reckon how far and how deep it of Faith ; F. J. Foxton's Popular 



Preface. 



XI 



tional," or of the " mythical ;" but as an American 
writer has well observed, " The natural interpreta- 
tion by its unnaturalness, and the mythical by its 
absurdity in some instances, and by its daring im- 



Christianity ; Theodore Parker's 
Theism, Atheism, and the Popular 
Theology, will supply some choice 
specimens. The latter writes in 
the following strain : — " I do not 
believe that there eyer was a mira- 
cle, or ever will be : every where 
I find law,— the constant mode of 
operation of the Infinite God. I 
do not believe in the miraculous 
inspiration of the Old Testament or 
the New Testament. I do not be- 
lieve that the Old Testament was 
God's first word, nor the New Tes- 
tament His last. The Scriptures 
are no finality to me. Inspiration 
is a perpetual fact. Prophets and 
apostles did not monopolise the 
Father. He inspires men to-day 
as much as heretofore. I do not 
believe in the miraculous origin 
of the Hebrew Church, or the 
Buddhist Church, or the Christian 
Church, nor the miraculous cha- 
racter of Jesus. I take not the 
Bible for my master, nor yet the 
Clrurch, nor even Jesus of Naza- 
reth for my master. ... I try 
all things by the human faculties. " 
—Theism, $c, pp. 263, 264 A 
particular account of the infidel 
writers of the last century, as well 
as of the principal works in answer 
to them, will be found in Van 
Mildert, Boyle Lectures for the 
years 1802 to 1805. See also a 
more recent account carried down 



to the present time in the late 
Archdeacon Hardwick's Christ and 
other Masters (particularly vol. i. 
pp. 1—40 j On thellteligious Ten- 
dencies of the present Age) ; an able 
review of Strauss's, Leben Jesu, 
in appendix to one of the es- 
says in the collection of articles 
from the Edinburgh Review by 
Mr. Rogers, entitled Reason and 
Faith; Professor Powell, Order of 
Nature, Essay iii., On the nation- 
alistic and other Theories of 
Miracles. See again, on the deri- 
vation of some modern objections 
across the Channel from English 
sources of the last century (as 
painfully exemplified in some of 
the abovenamed works), some 
important hints, from which we 
select the following : — u The ob- 
jections in question are not the 
novelties they affect to be. It is 
necessary to remember this, in 
order to obviate an advantage 
which the very vagueness of 
much modern opposition to 
Christianity would obtain from 
the notion that some prodigious 
arguments have been discovered, 
which the intellect of a Pascal or 
a Butler was not comprehensive 
enough to anticipate, and which 
no Clarke or Paley would have 
been logician enough to refute. 
We afiirm, without hesitation, 
that when the new advocates of 



xii Preface, 

piety in others, both combine to drive us back to 
the supernatural. On that ground, and on that 
only, all becomes plain, consistent, and intelligible. 
By the other plan you may, indeed, get rid of all 
chronological difficulties, and of troublesome dis- 
crepancies; but you are compelled to deny the 
genuineness of the books, and you destroy their 
authority. Thus Wegscheider declares it impossible 
to rescue the Bible from the reproaches and scoffs 
of its enemies, except by the acknowledgment of 
mytM in the sacred writings, and the separation of 
their inherent meaning from their unhistoric form? 
De Wette, denying the possibility of miracle and 
of prophecy, maintains the modern origin of the 
Pentateuch, and especially of the book of Genesis. 
Strauss lays it down for an infallible criterion of 
myth, when a narrative is intermingled with ac- 
counts of phenomena or events of which it is either 
expressly stated or implied that they were pro- 
duced immediately by God Himself (such as Divine 
apparitions, voices from heaven, and the like), or by 



infidelity descend from their airy found in the pages of our own 

elevations, and state their objec- deists a century ago; and, as al- 

tions in intelligible terms, they ready hinted, the vast majority of 

are found, for the most part, what Dr. Strauss's elaborate strictures 

we have represented them. .... will be found in the same sources." 

Hardly an instance of discrepancy — Rogers, Reason and Faith, p. 

is mentioned in the ' Wolfenbiittel 238. 
Fragments' which will not be 



Preface. xiii 

human beings possessed of supernatural powers 
(miracles, prophecies, &c). In short, that "a 
miracle is impossible, prophecy is impossible, and 
therefore all accounts detailing miracles are not 
true; they are but fables; such fables are the 
growth of long time in rude ages, therefore the 
Pentateuch must have been a collection of tradi- 
tions put together many ages after the occurrence 
of the wonderful events which they so exaggerate ; 
consequently, the Pentateuch cannot be the work 
of Moses. Moreover, the Gospel histories also 
being full of marvels, could not have been the pro- 
duction of eyewitnesses, as is vulgarly believed." 1 
Such are the bold assertions which these writers 
have ventured to build upon the one gratuitous 
assumption, That a "miraculous narrative neces- 
sarily involves some mythical origin ; " and that 
" mysteries must give way to reason " — to reason, 
that is, in their sense of the word, viz. the limited 
comprehension of man's finite and imperfect under- 
standing. 

In Germany, we have reason to be thankful that a 
purer light seems of late years to be dawning upon 
the spirit of the popular Theology. A new class 
of writers has arisen, uniting the "illumination" 
and deep research of their predecessors, with a 

1 Hamilton on the Pentateuch, 1852. 



xiv Preface, 

more profound and just reverence for the inspired 
records. The highly esteemed names of Neander, 
Olshausen, Tholuck, Kurtz, Bohr, Bock, Havernick, 
Stier, <$fc, are the harbingers of better times and a 
more hopeful theology. Let England but aspire to 
rival at once the learning, the patient spirit, and 
the mutual kindly feeling of her neighbours across 
the channel; and she too may hope to contend 
successfully against the new forms of error; and 
to restore the Scriptures to their just place in the 
estimation of all sincere seekers after truth. Nor 
need we, in the meantime, be deaf to the voice of 
history, or the testimonies of experience ; we need 
show no disrespect to the rational conclusions of 
philosophical investigation, nor lag timidly behind 
the advancing march of the literature and science 
of the day. Reason may assuredly find sufficient 
scope for its exercise, without rudely seeking to 
displace Revelation ; and there is abundance in the 
Scriptures alone to employ the intellect without 
violating those mysterious doctrines of the Faith, 
which reason itself might fairly have anticipated 
in a Revelation professedly coming from the Infi- 
nite source of "Wisdom and Truth. 

We can think of no better way to assist in coun- 
teracting any new attempt to revive the Scepticism 
of a past age, than by building up what the sceptic 



Preface. 



xv 



would destroy, — by endeavouring at least to 
show the futility of many objections popularly but 
inconsiderately entertained against the plain sense 
of Scripture ; and that the Mosaic record, which 
stands at the fountain-head of Revelation, contains 
nothing but what agrees well both with the reason 
and experience of mankind. And this design 
appears to comprehend the two-fold task, — 

First, — Of representing plainly and correctly 
what is really the substance (divested, perhaps, of 
some mistaken associations) of the earlier portion 
of Genesis : and, 

Secondly, — Of proving that there is nothing in 
it at variance either with reason (in the proper 
acceptation of the term), as founded on the true 
relation of things, or with matters of fact, as dis- 
coverable from other sources. 

It will not, however, be necessary in the popular 
and general view of the question which is here 
proposed, to separate nicely in every instance be- 
tween these two divisions of the subject ; but 
rather, as each event or doctrine comes under con- 
sideration, to endeavour as far as may be, to sub- 
stantiate the credibility of the one, or to show the 
reasonableness of the other. This task will lead 
naturally to many interesting particulars of the 
Life of Moses, which may serve, perhaps, as a 



xvi Preface. 

general guide and introduction to the study of the 
Pentateuch ;— and thence to the earliest records of 
profane history, and especially to the "condition of 
Egypt at the time of Exodus. This will be fol- 
lowed by a careful collation of the best accounts 
concerning the Dispersion and first settlement of 
Nations, together with something of their subse- 
quent history. The way will then be prepared for 
a more attentive study, in the next place, of the 
clear evidences, which will be pointed out, that in 
the still more remote records of Creation itself, 
Moses wrote under no ordinary illumination, but 
that the account in Genesis will stand the test of 
even the most recent discoveries of modern times. 
There will be added, in conclusion, a general sum- 
mary of the whole ; and the bearing of those earlier 
records on the principles and final establishment of 
Christianity will be carefully traced. Should the 
minds of any, into whose hands his work may fall, 
have been unsettled (as, doubtless, many are) by 
the fluctuating opinions of the day, — to such the 
Author trusts he may be performing no unaccepta- 
ble service, when he offers them this opportunity 
of confirming themselves in the certainty of a few 
leading principles, which, taking their rise in the 
earlier records of Moses ? will be found to run, like 
sacred threads, through the whole texture of Reve- 



Preface. xvii 

lation. The works of Moses are indeed a mine of 
wealth, from which something valuable might be 
gathered by readers of every country and every 
age, of every rank and every profession. To ex- 
haust its riches would be a work far beyond the 
pretensions of the writer; and would far exceed 
the limits of his present undertaking. He can but 
hope to have worked successfully some few veins 
which seemed to promise the best reward to his 
labours, and to present the most striking and 
salient points, for displaying the high character of 
the original, and its intimate and important rela- 
tion to all succeeding periods in the history of 
mankind. 

In treating the " Life and Character of Moses " 
himself, before his history of the world and its 
creation, it may be expedient to notice, as the 
reason for thus appearing to invert the scriptural 
order of subjects, that it seemed the order more 
agreeable to general usage, and likely to be con- 
ducive to the better understanding of the whole. 
Indeed the works of any Author are considered 
almost incomplete without his life; for the obvious 
reason that they mostly admit of important illustra- 
tion from a previous acquaintance with the times in 
which he lived, and the circumstances under which 
he wrote. 

a 2 



xviii Preface. 

A few words may suffice on the Geological rela- 
tions of Genesis, as about to come under considera- 
tion in the course of the subject. It will be our 
endeavour, without pretending to any special origi- 
nality of view in this department, to gather from 
different quarters a just idea of the present state of 
conflicting opinions as to the leading difficulties in 
this department ; and particularly as to the pur- 
port and duration of the Mosaic " days of creation." 
Whether the account in Genesis was properly 
intended to embrace the whole structure of the 
earth during the long periods of the deposition of 
the successive geological strata, — or whether the 
"days" are natural days, and we have only the 
literal account of a " six days'" preparation of the 
earth for the immediate habitation of man, — is 
perhaps the point, on which the chief interest is 
concentrated. In whichever way, however, this 
question may be determined, the believer in Ke- 
velation need scarcely fear for the result. Upon 
the former supposition, we have a simple coin- 
cidence and identity between the account in 
Genesis, and the observations of Nature — one 
evidently confirming the other. Upon the latter 
there is no collision, and therefore no contra- 
diction ; — since the periods must be supposed dif- 
ferent, to which the two records, the scriptural and. 



Preface. xix 

the natural, principally refer. It may be added, 
that in the opinion of many, the same " law of 
creation" (as it has been termed) is observable on 
either view. There is the same ascending scale from 
the lower to the higher types of life — exempli- 
fied, upon the one hypothesis, on the smaller scale 
of " six " natural " days ;" — extending, upon the 
other, through all antecedent periods and all suc- 
cessive phases of the world's existence. Thus, whe- 
ther we adopt the literal or the unliteral interpre- 
tation of the days, we may equally join in the per- 
suasion that " there is now no ground for appre- 
hension, that there will be any displacement of the 
established law of creation," whereby there has 
been " a gradual progress from the lower to the 
higher orders of living organisms — from the simply 
constructed Zoophyte, through the intermediate 
classes of the invertebrate Molluscs, Crustaceans, 
vertebrate Fishes, Reptiles, and Mammals, up to 
Man." 1 Nor is this the only remarkable coinci- 
dence between the two versions of the Scripture 
narrative. They are both of them greatly in ad- 
vance of the old and now obselete theory, which in 
the mystic " beginning " saw only a brief preamble 
to the work of the six days following ; — in the deso- 

1 Quoted from M'Causland, Sermons in Stones, Ed. 4. 



xx Preface. 

lation and " darkness/' a primitive " chaos " of con- 
fused elements; — in the "light" which followed, 
the first creation of that element ; in the " sun, 
moon, and stars " of the " fourth day/' the similar 
origination of all the celestial bodies ; and so forth. 
It is a satisfactory instance of the mutual reaction 
of revelation and science, that our knowledge of 
Cosmogony has long since outstripped these raw 
beginnings; and the great question now in discus- 
sion among geologists is one, which, in either way 
of deciding it, can only end in reflecting fresh 
honour on the marvellous accuracy of the Mosaic 
record. 



CONTENTS 



Chap. 

I. Introductory Observations . . 
II. The Life of Moses. — First Part 

III. The Life of Moses. — Second Part 

IV. The Dispersion 

V. Relation of Geology to the Scripture Nar 

rative ..... » 

VI. The Mosaic Order of Creation 
VII. The Mosaic Order of Creation continued 
VIII. The Mosaic Order of Creation concluded 
— Concluding Observations 



Page 

1 
21 

58 
96 

130 
167 
202 
243 
263 



APPENDIX. 

Notice of " The History of the Old Covenant," by Dr. 
Kurtz. Foreign Translation Series. T. and T. 
Clark, Edinburgh, 1859 .... 293- 



-303 



Appendix Notes. 

Chap. II. On the Contemporary History of Egypt, 
regarding chiefly (1.) The Time of the Exodus. 
(2.) The reigning Sovereign, and General Con- 
dition of the Country at the Time 



41—57 



xxii Contents. 

Page 
Chap. III. On the Typical Character of Moses . 90 — 95 

Chap. IV. Dr. Whewell on the Origin of Language . 129 

Chap. V. On the supposed Agencies in the great Phy- 
sical Disturbances of the Earth's Surface, at the 
successive Geological Epochs . . . 163 — 166 

Chap. VI. On the Contrast between the Biblical and 
Geological Accounts, as to the Precedence of the 
Vegetable to the Animal Tribes . 201 

Chap. VII. (1.) On .alleged Human Eemains in the 
older Strata. (2.) On the Divine Image in Man, 
various Opinions contrasted. (3.) On the Effects 
of the Fall on the Divine Image in Man, and the 
Means of its Kecovery .... 228—242 

Chap. VIII. On the Relation of Genesis to the Subse- 
quent Books of the Pentateuch . . . 283—289 



THE VERACITY 



OF 



THE BOOK OF GENESIS, 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductory Observations. 



Ie a book were presented to us, professing to chap. 

contain an account of the first man, the first : — 

arts and sciences, the first cities, the first origin 
of nations, the first houses, the first ships, — to 
say nothing of the earliest ideas of religion, 
and the earliest institutions of religious worship, 
— the very profession of such a theme would 
secure for it a more than ordinary attention 
and interest. Now just such a book — to go no 
deeper into it at present — is the book of Genesis. 
On the most cursory inspection, it abounds with 
notices of the very antiquities we have enumerated. 
ArchaBologically considered, there is nothing in the 

B 



\ Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, whole compass of historical document that bears 

'- — the marks of such great and venerable antiquity, — 

nothing that embraces subjects of the same uni- 
versal interest, the same extensive relation to the 
world we live in, and to the original and essential 
elements of society. Some would claim for it a still 
wider sphere. In its opening portion they would 
see the formation of primitive rocks, — the first 
filling of space with the immensity of all created 
matter, with the stars in their several spheres, 
with ethereal and liquid forms, before they were 
shaped and consolidated into the grosser elements 
which have since been associated with our ideas of 
the material world. And to what extent the mys- 
teries of creative power were intended to be evolved 
in detail in the Mosaic account, — or how far the 
details given are calculated to bear the test of phy- 
sical science,— or within what limits the description 
holds good, — may be regarded as open questions. 
But of this we are certain, — for of this there is the 
clearest evidence on the face of the account, — that 
we have here what professes to be a description of 
the primitive state of man, and of the world as 
coeval with man, i.e., as immediately prepared for 
his habitation. It then goes on with a relation of 
the times and events immediately subsequent, — 
events directly bearing on all the interests of society 
in general, and on the whole history of the world 
to the present time. And such being the obvious 
and professed scope and nature of this wonderful 



Value of Genesis as an Introductory Book. 3 

book, an enquiry at once suggests itself, on what chap. 
grounds of authority it rests, and how far its claims 
to inspiration deserve to be admitted? In other 
words, what were the sources from which the author 
derived his information? and whence did he ob- 
tain it ? Was it to his superior skill in antiquarian 
research? to extraordinary erudition, and great 
advantages of education? or was it rather to still 
higher endowments, to preternatural aid, and to 
direct light from Heaven, that we may ascribe these 
marvellous revelations? 1 Genesis being the first 
book in Holy Scripture, adds greatly to the im- 
portance of this enquiry. It is there that our 
earliest ideas are formed of the Divine administra- 
tion and government of the world ; it is there we 
find the key to the imagery and phraseology of all 
other scripture ; there that its chief allusions find 
their explanation; and, if we take in the whole 
Pentateuch, we may say, it is there only we must 
look for all the principal ideas and historic facts 



1 u There is no work whose loss history now extant was composed ; 

would cause a wider chasm in and that the facts which it records 

our historical knowledge than the are exactly those about which our 

first five books of the Old Testa- curiosity would be most alive, 

ment. But for them, we should supposing we had no information 

be without so much as even a concerning our primeval ancestors 

tradition respecting the early his- beyond what has been preserved 

tory of mankind. Of the value of in the broken and, for the most 

this book as a mere literary docu- part, fabulous traditions which 

ment, it may be sufficient to ob- we find in the ancient poets of 

serve, that the language in which Greece." — Lyall's Preparation of 

it is written had ceased to be a Prophecy, Part I. ch. viii. 
spoken language before any other 

b 2 



t Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, which form the basis, the great vocabulary, as it 

'■ — were, of the entire volume of inspiration. 

In assisting, as we hope to do, in this important 
enquiry, — an enquiry so much the more pressed 
upon our attention of late years by the doubtful 
tone into which even some eminent theologians 
have fallen on the subject, — we may state, at the 
outset, that the class of evidence to which we shall 
have occasion to appeal is that which arises from 
the nature of the contents themselves of the books 
of Moses, and particularly of the earlier chapters 
of Genesis. For of all the proofs that may be al- 
leged in favour of their Divine inspiration, none 
has appeared to us more interesting or more 
conclusive than the kind of evidence of which we 
speak. Foremost, we would place the whole life 
and character of the great Lawgiver himself, whose 
exploits follow in the subsequent portions of the 
Pentateuch. And assuming, according to the 
uniform tradition of the Jews, that the giving 
of the law and all those exploits, and the writing 
of the Books, were by the same hand, we find in the 
very nature of the transactions presumptive evi- 
dence of no mean degree, that the author was, in his 
writings also, acting under the immediate sanction 
and assistance of Heaven. The fact is, we do not 
ordinarily take our measure of the authority of 
Genesis from the earlier chapters of it, nor from 
any particular subjects in them, but from the 
general tenor of those subsequent portions of 



Proper Estimate of the Writer. I 

the Pentateuch which contain the actual history chap. 

i. 
of the writer (for so we take leave to call him 1 ) : — 

and of the marvellous people whose appointed 
leader and prophet he was. It is to this history 
that the earlier chapters lead up and are intro- 
ductory. It would seem, therefore, unreasonable 
to dwell much on the details of the latter till 
we have furnished ourselves, in the first instance, 
with the necessary information derivable from the 
former. Our value for the writings insensibly de- 
pends on our estimate of the writer. And though 
the highest opinion which, upon a diligent study 
of that history of Moses, we might conceive of the 
wisdom, the ability, and the integrity of his con- 
duct and character, would not exactly justify us in 
concluding him to have been the subject of imme- 
diate and actual inspiration, yet could we not deny 
to those qualities, when fairly made out, that due 
weight which is ever accorded to them by the uni- 
versal sentiments of humanity. A certain amount 
of credit will readily be allowed for such qualifica- 
tions, appearing in whomsoever they may. They 
naturally pave the way for a more attentive hearing 
of those other and higher claims which, though rest- 
ing on distinct grounds, seem thus recommended, as 
it were, to our more patient and impartial consider- 
ation. It may not, therefore, be an unprofitable 

1 The learned Eichhorn, with origin, of the Pentateuch. The 
the earlier Rationalists, admitted same was admitted by Porphyry 
the genuineness, i.e., the Mosaic and others. See Note, p. 13. 

b 3 



I Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, labour to commence our notice of the earlier chap- 

ters in Genesis by a detailed review of the Life of 

Moses. It will at least serve to put the reader on 
the same starting-ground as ourselves, when we thus 
invite him to a more intimate acquaintance with 
the life and character of him on whose credit the 
documents in question are required to be received. 
We must be prepared in such a biography to 
meet with many incidents differing by their pre- 
ternatural character from ordinary history ; and 
we must be prepared no less for the common taunt 
of the objector, ever ready to assail such pre- 
tensions, when he perpetually harps upon the 
never-failing maxim, that " No amount of evidence 
can prove a miracle!" or, as Voltaire put it, 
" No such things have happened in our time, 
therefore, they never happened!" This oft-re- 
peated, and now somewhat trite assertion, may 
sound plausible to the ear ; but there is really very 
little to recommend it to the reason. If a document 
introduced into the world and preserved and handed 
down in so extraordinary a manner, and under 
such remarkable circumstances, as the Old Testa- 
• ment Scriptures have been, should itself contain 
nothing extraordinary, this would be far more 
unaccountable than if, as it does, it should contain 
accounts and narratives of a character peculiar to 
itself, and largely abounding with the supernatural 
and the marvellous. Its preservation alone would 
be a miracle, if there were no other. The Jewish 



Miraculous Preservation of the Sacred Writings, 



people have preserved these records from the be- 
ginning with the most jealous care ; and this 
notwithstanding they contain disclosures by no 
means 1 flattering to their national pride, together 
with rules of living, and a number of burdensome 
rites and ceremonies, which no man on his mere 
private authority, or in the apparent interest of 
his countrymen or himself, would ever have thought 
of inventing. These documents, nevertheless, have 
been handed down by that very people whom they 
most concern, with the greatest care. They are 
the very opposite to what we should have expected, 



CHAP. 

i. 



1 u The most decisive character 
of truth, in any history is its im- 
partiality ; and here the author 
of the Pentateuch is distinguished 
perhaps above every historian in 
the world. . . . He speaks of the 
Jewish nation, not only impar- 
tially, but even severely ; he does 
not conceal the weakness and ob- 
scurity of their first origin — that 
'a, Syrian ready to perish was 
their father ' (Deut. xxvi. 5) ; nor 
their long and degrading slavery in 
Egypt; their frequent murmur- 
ings and criminal distrust of God, 
notwithstanding his many inter- 
positions in their favour,- their 
criminal apostacy, rebellion, and 
resolution to return to Egypt — 
first, when they erected the golden 
calf at Mount Sinai, and next, on 
the return of the spies from the 
land of Canaan: he repeatedly 
reproaches the people with these 
crimes, and loads them with the 
epithets of ' stiffhecked/ 'rebel- 



lious,' and ( idolatrous' (Deut. ix. ; 
Exod. xxxii.) ; he declares to 
them his conviction, that in their 
prosperity they would again re- 
lapse into their rebellions and 
idolatries, and imitate the foul 
vices of those nations whom God 
had driven out from before them 

for these very crimes So, 

again, in speaking of his own re- 
latives, and of himself. ... Of his 
own family we are told nothing, 
but that his father-in-law, Jethro, 
was a wise man, who suggested 
to Moses some regulations of uti- 
lity ; that his wife was an ^Ethio- 
pian woman, and as such the ob- 
ject of contempt and opposition 
even to his own brother and sister 
(Num. xii. 1). . . How different is 
all this from the embellishments of 
fiction or the exaggerations of va- 
nity ! How strongly does it carry 
with it the appearance of humility 
and truth!" — Graves, On the 
Pentateuch, Part I., Lect. ii. 



b 4 



\ Veracity of Genesis, 

chap both in the character which they give of the people 
— '- — and in the picture which they draw of their pros- 
pects, and of the ultimate destination of their king- 
dom and city. Their boasted Lawgiver faithfully 
pourtrays to them the certainty of their downfal, 
should they continue in apostacy from the true God 
and from the Prophet that was to come. Not like an 
impostor, who would have concealed their foibles, 
and lightly excused their faults, we find him, in 
all his writings and addresses to them, faithfully 
recording what they had done amiss, and boldly 
representing the dark side of their character and 
prospects. Yet these are the very writings which 
they have so jealously preserved and handed down 
to posterity. And if, after all this, it should turn 
out that the contents of the sacred books, in an 
historical point of view, were nothing but the 
commonplace narration of ordinary events, the 
wonder would indeed be on this, rather than on 
the actual side of the question. But when we 
observe that the contents of the books are as mar- 
vellous as the fact of their preservation and the 
circumstances of their origin, — that the substance 
of them consists in a plain and impartial mixture 
of extraordinary and ordinary dispensations of 
Providence, and of revelations concerning the past 
which appear to claim the like authority with the 
more strictly historical portions, — this agreement 
and harmony between the style and character of 
the work and the origin claimed for it, as much 



Denial of Miracles absurd. • 

impresses the imagination as convinces the judg- chap. 
ment, that the claims are genuine, and that the 
work is Divine. 

It is easy to go upon the tack of denying the 
possibility of a miracle. We readily grant that the 
evidence for any alleged miraculous story should 
be more full and decisive than would be required 
in a common case ; but this is no argument what- 
ever for discarding from the range of our be- 
lief the notion of a miracle altogether. To deny 
the possibility of a miracle is to limit the power of 
the Creator; it is to banish Him from His own 
world, which he has made. 1 It is to pronounce, that 
nothing new, i.e., nothing contrary to what are 
called " general laws, " 2 can possibly be. And thus 



1 There are, doubtless, immu- in the next note that even man 

table laws of right and wrong, from has power to interfere with the 

which the Deity Himself never physical laws of the world ; how, 

departs. These are not so much then, can we deny the same power 

laws as they are rules of the Di- to the great Being to whom both 

vine conduct, essential principles man himself and the world around 

of His nature, and elements of His him are alike subject and subser- 

moral government of the world. vient ? HE, surely, may interpose 

But what is to Him a rule is to at His pleasure ; may alter, divert, 

His creatures a law ; and a law im- or suspend the physical laws 

plies a lawgiver. The very use of which He has imposed on His 

the terms should remind the ob- creation. 

jector of that flaw in his argument 2 We come here at once to the 

which woidd imagine the exist- doctrine of Spinoza, the reviver of 

ence of law, and overlook the will Pantheism, as we may call him, in 

and power of the being from whom the seventeenth century, and who 

the law proceeds. With regard to also made a collection of the prin- 

the physical order of nature, the cipal objections against inspiration, 

case is perfectly different from that — obj ections which laid the foun- 

of the moral law by which God dation for the nationalism of Le 

governs the world. It will be seen Clerc, Wegscheider, and succeed- 



10 



Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. 
L 



we should be driven, with the Stoics, to admit the 
eternity of matter; with Lamarck, the generation 



ing writers of that school. He 
supported in particular the theory 
of the uniform and undeviating 
agency of u natural laws/' among 
which he reckoned the ordinary 
powers of the human mind. 
" Grod," he said, " was before all 
things, and the substance of all, for 
there was really no other substance 
in nature besides Him, — so that 
whatever opposes the laws of na- 
ture is necessarily repugnant to the 
Divine nature ; — that the powers 
of nature were no other than the 
very power of God j and that to 
ascribe a thing to the Divine 
power, when we ought to refer 
everything to a law of nature and 
a natural cause, is absolute folly. 
That if we could conceive a phe- 
nomenon of any kind to have oc- 
curred in the natural world which 
was in any degree repugnant to 
nature's law, such a conception 
was to be rejected as absurd." 
u Omnia per Dei potentiam facta 
sunt ; immo quia naturae potentia 
nulla est nisi ipsa Dei potentia, 
certum est nos eatenus Dei poten- 
tiam non intelligere, quatenus 
causas naturales ignoramus ; 
adeoque stulte ad eandem Dei 
potentiam recurritur, quando rei 
alicujus causam naturalem, hoc 
est, ipsam Dei potentiam igno- 
ramus." — Tractatus Tlieolog. Poli- 
ticus, ed.1674, p.20. u Si concipere 
possemus aliquid in natura ab 
aliqua potentia .... posse fieri 
quod naturae repugnet ... id ut 
absurdum rejiciendum." {Ibid., 



p. 102.) Better this, perhaps, 
than with the Sadducees and an- 
cient heathen adversaries of Chris- 
tianity, to ascribe the miracles re- 
corded in Scripture to Beelzebub 
and evil spirits. Yet in that very 
charge we find a valuable testi- 
mony involved to the truth of the 
miracles themselves as having 
really happened, — a testimony so 
much the more important, as it 
was near the time when they 
actually happened. Yet, in the 
face of an overwhelming amount 
of testimony, indirect and in- 
voluntary as well as direct and 
actual, the advocates of Chris- 
tianity are again and again as- 
sured that "no testimony can 
bring a miracle within the re- 
motest bounds of probability!" 
and that for the old reason, so 
much vaunted by Hume and his 
followers, " that a miracle is con- 
trary to experience." But to 
what experience ? For this is 
surely part of the question in dis- 
pute ! For the sacred history ex- 
pressly declares, and neither Jew 
nor heathen denied it, that miracles 
have been wrought, and that pub- 
licly, before many people. They 
are not then certainly against the 
experience of those who saw them ! 
And a most unreasonable thing it 
would be to set the inexperience 
of persons who had no opportunity 
of witnessing such phenomena 
against the experience of those 
who had. 

But, besides this, it may well 



Consequence of denying Miracles. 



11 



of mankind from an improved race of monkey, and, chap. 
in short, the whole train of absurdities too often — 



be doubted whether, speaking 
universally, experience be not ra- 
ther/or than against the probabi- 
lity of a miracle. For, granting 
that it involves a temporary inter- 
ference with some law of nature, 
or with the natural order of things, 
such interference is surely not mi- 
frequent, even within the range 
of human life and action. Gravi- 
tation, for instance, is an order 
and law of nature ; and is it not 
an " interference " with this law 
when we lift a weight in our 
hands and prevent it falling to the 
ground ? Now, if a man can lift 
a weight, cannot God support a 
drowning man, or cause another 
to walk on the sea ? Cannot He, 
who has all nature at command, 
and myriads of angelic agencies 
to wait upon His will, divide the 
waves, and make a pathway 
through the waters ? Cannot 
He fetch the water out of the 
stony rock ? and feed a multitude 
with manna in the wilderness ? 
It is surprising that among per- 
sons boasting of dispassionate 
reason, the opposite view should 
ever have found one serious advo- 
cate ; and that thinking men 
should not all have come to the 
conclusion thus eloquently drawn 
by a learned prelate of our Church, 
who says, " Convinced that, by a 
fair chain of reasoning , " [not, ob- 
serve, intending it, or clearly see- 
ing such a consequence them- 
selves] "they who deny them 
must be driven to the necessity of 
maintaining Atheistical principles, 



by questioning either the power, 
or wisdom, or goodness of the 
Creator, the true philosopher will 
yield to the force of this con- 
sideration, as well as to the over- 
powering evidence of the facts 
themselves, and will thankfully 
accept the dispensation which 
God hath thus graciously vouch- 
safed to reveal. He will suffer 
neither wit, nor ridicule, nor 
sophistry to rob him of this anchor 
of his faith ; but will turn to his 
Saviour " [for the argument ap- 
plies to both Testaments alike,] 
" with the confidence so emphati- 
cally expressed by Nicodemus, 
' Rabbi, we know that Thou art a 
teacher come from God ; foe no 
man can do these miracles that 
Thou doest, except God be with 
him.'"— Van Mildert, Boijle 
Lectures, 1802—1805. Vol. ii. p. 
344. We subjoin the opinion of 
Sir Matthew Hale : — "It is true 
of miracles as of special Provi- 
dence, that if we should deny the 
intervention of special acts of 
Divine Providence in relation to 
actions natural or moral that ap- 
pear in the world, we should ex- 
clude His regimen of the world 
in a great measure, and chain up 
all things to a fatal necessity of 
second causes, and allow at most 
to the glorious God a bare pros- 
pect or prescience of things that 
are or shall be done, without any 
other regency but merely accord- 
ing to the instituted nature and 
operations of things." — Primitive 
Origination of Mankind, ch. i. 



12 Veracity of Genesis. 

char endorsed and passing current with the pretended 

'- — rationalist, under the name of reason, but which 

are in reality far more astounding and incredible 
than anything proposed on the other side. If, on 
the contrary, we admit a Creator, it is in the high- 
est degree rash and unphilosophical to limit His 
creating and dispensing power. And though we 
believe Him to administer the world which He has 
made, by regular and uniform laws, yet it is im- 
possible for us to decide what acts or events, how- 
ever seemingly extraordinary, come within the 
limits of those laws if only we were more perfectly 
acquainted with them, or how far it may please 
Him occasionally to depart from them. Thus, for 
instance, a revelation, being clearly a departure 
from the ordinary course of Providence, is a 
miracle, and yet we must admit that many such 
revelations there have been. Among the Jews 
they were of constant recurrence. Voices from 
Heaven, or by angelic messengers, in patriarchal 
times; the Urim and Thummin, under the Law; 
Visions, under the Prophets, were the constant 
vehicles and direct instances of such a revelation. 
They are credibly recorded ; they include prophecies 
long since verified by the result, and thus guaran- 
teeing the reality of the predictive power. Yet to 
admit this is to admit miracles 1 ; and it is there- 
fore nothing against the credibility of the Mosaic 

1 On the argument for miracles, Religion, by the Hon. F. Boyle ; 
see Reconcilableness of Reason and J. F. Buddeus, de Atheismo et 



Authority of Pentateuch independent of Authorship. 13 

documents, that miraculous accounts are found chap. 

among their contents. 

We have assumed Moses to be the writer of the 
Pentateuch 1 , and have appealed for the truth of this 
hypothesis to the invariable tenor of Jewish tra- 
dition. That he was so considered among them is 
evident from the books of the New Testament ; and 
upon other and independent grounds it may not be 
difficult to prove that he really was. But we may 
observe, that Moses being the author, is not abso- 
lutely essential to the argument for the inspiration 
of the books, however much it may strengthen that 
argument. A saying may be none the less true 
because it is doubtful who said it. The uncer- 
tainty of the authorship does not prevent our 
admiration of many passages in the Letters of 
Junius. And so in the instance before us ; we must 
keep our eye mainly upon the facts recorded, and not 
too exclusively on the person recording. It might 
have been Moses, we will say, for argument's sake, 
or it might have been some other compiler ; but in 
either case the subject-matter of the record is the 



Superstitione ; Lettres de quelques 1 We may remark also, that 

Juifs a Mons. de Voltaire, Paris, Porphyry, the learned and bitter 

1781 } Houteville, La Religion enemy of Christianity, admitted 

Chretienne prouvee par les faits ; the authorship of the Pentateuch, 

Stillingfleet, Orig. Sac. vol. ii. and acknowledged that Moses was 

ch. 5 — 10; Fleetwood, Essay on prior to the Phoenician Sanchoni- 

Miracles ; Leslie, Vieiu of De- atho, who flourished before the 

istieal Winters, vol. i. Letters 18 Trojan war. See Hamilton, On 

— 21 ; Bryant, On the Plagues of the Pentateuch, 1852, p. 137. 
Egypt; Rogers, Reason and Faith, 



14 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, principal thing. In either view, also, a great in- 

: — - terest must attach to the life and character of the 

chosen leader of Israel out of Egypt, whether he 
wrote the Pentateuch or not. 

That at least the name of that Leader — not to 
insist more on the authorship of the books . — was 
Moses, we may unhesitatingly assume as a fact 
equally certain with any in history. Besides in 
Josephus, and throughout the Scriptures, he is 
spoken of by Maneiho, Diodorus, Lysimachus, 
Tacitus, Longinus, and Strabo, in short, by nearly 
all writers, sacred and profane, as the great law- 
giver of the Jewish people. The selfsame locali- 
ties in the East 1 as are mentioned in his own 
narratives still re-echo his name ; and we have 
the continuous testimony of Jewish tradition to 
the reality of the man and of his work. But the 
continuous testimony of the Jewish nation alone 
amounts to a moral certainty of the fact. It would 
be impossible for a whole people for ages together 
to testify to things as actually having taken place 
among them, and to carry on that testimony from 
the very time they are said to have occurred, if 
they never occurred at all. How hopeless it would 
be for an impostor to go to a strange people, — say 
to the Siberians, — and persuade them that from time 
immemorial they, or their forefathers, had been 

1 There are places on the Red (fountains of Moses), opposite R as 

Sea called by the natives to this Attaka, or the Bay of Deliverance. 

day Hummam Musa (hath of See Kitto, Cydopcedia of Biblical 

Moses), near Tor, and Ayun Musa Literature. 



Imposition precluded by the Circumstances. 15 

circumcised or had kept the Passover, or received chap. 



the Law on Mount Sinai, or, in short, been the sub- 
jects of a history in which they were conscious they 
had really taken no part ! Would any number of 
Englishmen be persuaded to believe that 600,000 of 
their ancestors had been led over the Thames at the 
Nore on dry ground, from the Kentish to the Essex 
side, if this had never really taken place ? But if 
this would be impracticable with Siberians, or with 
Englishmen, as unlikely is it that any similar story 
should have succeeded with the people of Israel, 
unless it was strictly founded on fact. But when a 
story did obtain credit, and was received among 
them from the generation that first witnessed it to 
their remotest posterity, no doubt can exist in 
any reasonable mind of the truth and reality of it. 
In thus stating the case, it will be perceived that 
we have been following the celebrated argument of 
Leslie 1 in his " Method with the Deists." And if 
it convincingly shows the certainty of the facts, we 
are sure there must have been some principal actor 
in the transactions thus credibly recorded, even if 
it was not Moses. To deny that it was Moses is 
merely, therefore, to shift the question to a dispute 
about names, and gains absolutely nothing to the 
side of the objector, except to bring upon him the 
responsibility of telling us who it was to whom the 
history belongs. He must equally admit the sub- 
stance of the history to be true as standing on similar 

1 And see Jenkins' Reasonableness of Clwistianity, vol. i. p. 2. ch. 6. 



16 



Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. 
I. 



and, we must say, much stronger evidence than it 
would be easy to find for any other known history 
in the world. 1 

We have thus briefly stated the case as it regards 
the substance of the Mosaic history. It may be 
useful, before concluding these preliminary re- 
marks, to show how the constant persuasion 
among the chosen people themselves was, that 
the books of the Pentateuch were to be ascribed 
to the authorship of the same individual who 
had conducted their forefathers out of Egypt, as 
well as in what esteem he was held among the 
same people as regards the inspiration under 
which those writings were composed. If others 



1 "Here," says Van Mildert, 
" as in the Christian Religion, is 
a series of facts easy to he proved 
or disproved at the time when 
they were said to be brought, and 
also several ordinances of a pecu- 
liar and appropriate description, 
designed to keep those facts in re- 
membrance. If, then, it be asked, 
' Might not an impostor deceive a 
whole people by pretending to do 
such things as Moses did ? or 
might not some other impostor 
afterwards fabricate an account of 
these pretended transactions ? 
the answer is, that the nature of 
facts clearly refutes the former 
supposition; and the nature of the 
institutions founded upon them as 
clearly refutes the latter. For as 
no man could make a whole 
people believe that he had laid 
the country in which they lived 
under desolation by unheard-of 



plagues of a preternatural kind, 
and that he had conducted them 
for forty years together through a 
scene of perils, trials, and deliver- 
ances unparalleled in the history 
of mankind, without having 
actually performed such things ; 
so no man in after times could in- 
duce that people to believe that 
such and such ordinances and me- 
morials of those events had been 
constantly and religiously observed 
by that very people ever since the 
events took place, if neither such 
events had ever happened, nor such 
ordinances and memorials were then 
really existing. And it is utterly 
incredible that at any after period 
an attempt to impose such things 
upon the nation, if unfounded in 
fact, could possibly have suc- 
ceeded." — Van Mildert, Boyle 
Lectures, ii. 247. 



The place of Moses in the Jewish Canon. 



17 



should come to the conclusion that the author 
of the books was not also the chosen leader of 
the people, they will have two characters to ac- 
count for, — each having distinct claims to inspi- 
ration; while, if we take the Jewish tradition and 
belief, it leaves us the easier task of accounting only 
for one. And this is the hypothesis which, in the 
following pages, we would be supposed to adopt. 
The following, then, was the order of the sacred 
Canon, as received among the Jews : — 



CHAP. 

i 



' Genesis. 
Exodus. 
The Five Books of Moses . < Leviticus. 

Numbers. 
Deuteronomy. 

r Joshua. 
Four Books of the former Pro- I Judges and Ruth.. 

phets I Samuel 1 and 2. 

^ Kings 1 and 2. 

r Isaiah. 
Four Books of the later Pro- j Jeremiah and Lamentations. 

P liets jEzekiel. 

I Twelve Lesser Prophets. 

f Psalms. 

Proverbs. 

Ecclesiastes. 

Canticles. 

Job. 

Daniel. 

Ezra and Nehemiah. 

Esther. 
L Chronicles 1 and 2. 



Psalms, and rest of the Hagio- 
grapha, Nine Books l 



1 Maimonides, recognising this 
division of the ancient Scriptures, 



and ascribing to Moses the pre- 
eminence above all the other in- 



18 Veracity of Genesis, 

chap. We copy from Bishop Gleig's Introduction to 

'— Stackhouse the following observations on the 

above Canon : — " It is evident, from this classifi- 
cation, that the Jews who made it considered the 
different classes of their sacred books as entitled to 
different degrees of reverence ; and it is well known 
that, in the days of our Saviour's sojourning on 
earth, the five books of Moses were received as ca- 
nonical scripture by the sect of the Sadducees, and 
by the people of Samaria. In rejecting the writings 
of the prophets these heretics did, indeed, greatly 
err ; for these writings have internal evidence, that 
whatever doctrines or prophecies they contain, were 
dictated by the Spirit of God, and are therefore un- 
questionably sacred and authoritative. It cannot, 
however, be denied that the books of Moses were 
entitled to peculiar reverence, because they not 
only contain the complete code of Jewish law and 



spired writers, thus enumerates Moses it was not so j and this is 

the particulars wherein it con- what the Scripture says, — 'As a 

sisted, viz. : " (1.) All the other man speaketh imto his friend ' 

prophets saw the prophecy in a (Ex. xxxiii. 11). (4.) All the 

dream or a vision ; but our rabbi other prophets could not prophesy 

Moses saw it when he was awake. at any time that they wished ; but 

(2.) To all the other prophets it with Moses it was not so, but at 

was revealed through the medium any time when he wished for it 

of an angel, and therefore they the Holy Spirit came upon him ; 

saw in an allegory or enigma ; so that it was not necessaiy for 

but to Moses it is said, ( With him him to prepare his mind, for he 

I will speak mouth to mouth ' was always ready for it, like the 

(nB'^N nS, Num. xii. 8), and ministering angels."— Maimon- 

' face to face ' (D"OET^K D*OB, Ex. ides, Tad Hachazakah, c. vii. See 

xxxiii. 11). (3.) All the other Lee's Inspiration of Holy Scrip- 

prophets were terrified ; but with ture, Appendix 0. 



Scriptural Testimony to the Inspiration of Moses. 19 

religion, but also relate those awful events on which chap. 

is founded the whole scheme of revealed religion, '- — 

Christian as well as Jewish." 

We have yet higher authority than Jewish tradi- 
tion. St. Peter sets his seal to the truth of those 
early Scriptures, where he adopts in his Epistle 
several principal particulars in the Mosaic records, 
such as the history of Balaam (2 Pet. ii. 15), the 
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot, Noah, 
and the Ark (2 Pet. ii. 5-7; and 1 Pet. iii. 20). 
We have his testimony again (2 Pet. iii. 5, 6), that 
" by the word of God the heavens were of old, and 
the earth standing out of the water and in the 
water; Whereby the world that then was, being 
overflowed with water, perished." And he adds 
(2 Pet. i. 21), " The prophecy came not in old 
time by the will of man ; but holy men of old 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 
St. Paul, in like manner, declares his belief to be 
grounded on the same Old Testament records — 
" And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the 
promise made of God unto our fathers .... I con- 
tinue witnessing both to small and great, saying 
none other things than those which the prophets 
and'^Moses did say should come " (Acts xxvi. 6, 22). 
Pleading before Felix, he says (Acts xxiv. 14) : 
" This I confess unto thee, that after the way which 
they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, 
believing all things which are written in the Law 
and in the Prophets." " We have found Him," 



20 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, said a still earlier disciple, "of whom Moses in the 

'■ — law, and the Prophets, did write." (John i. 45). To 

the Jews, who admitted the writings while they re- 
jected the conclusions drawn from them, our Lord 
himself rejoins (John v. 45, 46), "There is one that 
accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For 
had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, 
for he wrote of Me." On the solemn occasion of 
one of his latest manifestations of Himself to two 
of his disciples, " beginning at Moses, and all the 
Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scrip- 
tures the things concerning himself." Luke xxiv. 
27. And in what appears a parting charge to the 
Eleven Apostles (Luke xxiv. 44), " These are the 
words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with 
you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were 
written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, 
and in the Psalms, concerning me." With these 
lights before us, we proceed to follow Moses through 
the chief events of his personal history. Much ad- 
ditional interest will arise from its connexion with 
the whole national history of Israel, and much cause 
of admiration also, as we mark the sober truthful- 
ness of the narrator, and the sublime simplicity of 
the narrative. 



21 



CHAP. II. 

The Life of Moses. — First Part. 

11 The best way of proving the truth of religion is by exhibiting it as 
it is. The best proof of the creation of the world, of the deluge, and of 
the miracles of Moses, is the nature of those miracles." — Feneloist. 

tl So distinctive, so peculiar, that the wonderful vitality of 
Hebraism in after times can only be explained on the hypothesis that 
men's devotion to it had been supernaturally produced, and ever since 
the childhood of the nation had been growing upward with their 
growth. " — Hard wick. 

The life of Moses is interesting alike to the chap. 
Statesman, the Lawgiver, the Philosopher, and the — ^— 
Divine. In it we see, reflected as in a mirror, the 
most favourable image of the times in which he 
lived — -the measure of light enjoyed — and the 
extent to which it pleased God at that* period to 
manifest His Divine attributes among the most 
favoured people of the world. We see, moreover, 
in his personal character, much to venerate and 
admire — much to qualify him for the work to which 
he was called; and thus to establish the truth of 
his Divine mission, and to commend to our approval 
the titles by which he has come down to us, as 
" the man of God," and the type of that " Prophet 
that should come into the world." 

It may indeed be difficult to separate him in our 

c -3 



22 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, view from the system with which we associate his 
'■ — name. We almost unavoidably bring to the con- 
sideration of his character the prejudices which 
cling to our ideas of that more limited dispensa- 
tion, of which he was the minister. We mix up 
with our conceptions of the Lawgiver all the im- 
perfections which we associate with the law; — 
imperfections, be it remembered, which can only be 
viewed in their true light, when regarded as intro- 
ductory, in the purposes of Infinite Wisdom, to the 
better dispensation of the Gospel of Christ. It 
would be desirable to put aside by some decided 
effort all such prejudices, if we would form a fair 
estimate of the man. And if this be done, we 
doubt not the admirable adaptation of the instru- 
ment to the work required, and thereby the wisdom 
of Divine Providence in selecting him for the office 
assigned him, will very plainly appear. There will 
be seen to be nothing strained or unnatural in the 
fancy of painters and sculptors, when they adorn 
his brows with horns of light — just emblems, as we 
shall allow them to be, not merely of the light 
which beamed from his countenance on his descent 
from Mount Sinai, but of the peculiar grace which 
pervaded all the words and actions recorded of him 
in the daily discharge of the offices of his ministry. 
Moses, through his father Amram, was grandson 
of Levi, and, therefore, fourth in descent from the 
patriarch Jacob ; — thereby illustrating the prophecy 
in Gen. xv. 16. "And in the fourth generation 



Analogy of Moses 1 Office. 23 

they shall come hither again ," i.e., out of Egypt chap. 

into the promised land of Canaan. But though — 

descended from Levi, he was not, technically speak- 
ing, a Levite. That office had not yet been insti- 
tuted, nor that tribe set apart for the public 
ministry of the tabernacle when Moses was born, 
nor even when he entered upon the duties of public 
life. If, therefore, we would picture Moses to our 
minds, we are not to imagine him in priestly robes, 
limited to the comparatively small, though venerable 
sphere of priestly offices. Younger in years than 
Aaron, he was made Aaron's superior in command ; 
and we have an early example, so to speak, of 
Church subordinated to State. Yet in Moses there 
was enough of the Churchman to secure such 
arrangement from any danger of abuse from reck- 
less and unprincipled invasion of ecclesiastical rule, 
and from contempt of the laws of religion and 
morality. He held, in fact, a double office; and 
when that office became divided with Aaron, one 
soul as it were animated both; there reigned the 
strictest harmony between them, not less from ties 
of brotherhood, than from a common spirit of faith 
and loyalty to the one true God of Israel. 

His infancy fell in a strange land, and in a time 
of great oppression and cruelty against the people 
of his race. A Pharaoh had arisen, who " knew 
not Joseph," 1 and, desirous of exterminating, or at 
least of wearing down to insignificant numbers 

1 Ex. i. 8. 

c 4 



24 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, a people whose industry and good conduct had 



advanced them to a position of inconvenient wealth 
and importance in the land of their settlement, had 
issued an order to slay, or to cast into the river, 
every male child that should be born to Israel. 
This order was at first frustrated by the better 
feelings and brave resistance of the Egyptian mid- 
wives. But as regarded the child Moses, it had 
nearly taken effect, when by God's peculiar blessing 
on a mother's skill and a sister's tender care and 
cleverness, he was snatched from a watery grave, 
and even placed in shelter under Pharaoh's roof. 
We need scarcely repeat the circumstances ; but 
anything more touching can scarcely be imagined 
than the pretty artifice of the little Hebrew maid, 
the sister of Moses, on this occasion. As he was 
lowered into the river in his slender bark, that 
u sister stood afar off, to see what would be done to 
him." The approach of Pharaoh's daughter to 
perform the rites of ablution in the sacred waters 
of the Nile, soon gave occasion for the exercise of 
her watchfulness. At the call of that Princess, who 
had been attracted by the beauty of the child whom 
she saw lying on the stream, the little maid rushes 
forward from her place of concealment, and proffers, 
as a stranger, her services to procure a nurse. 
The nurse whom she procures — all unknown to 
the royal company — is the mother of the child. 
u The maid went and called the child's mother. 1 . . . 

1 Ex. ii. 4—10. 



His learned Education. 25 

And the child grew, and she brought him unto chap. 



Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And 
she called his name Moses, and she said, Because I 
drew him out of the water?" This little 'ark' 
of bulrushes, we may remark, is called by the 
same name in Hebrew as the ' ark ' which carried 
Noah and his family in the Flood. It scarcely 
bore a less precious treasure than that other and 
more memorable vessel; and the very name 
was intended, probably, to suggest a parallel 
between the two events — the one, signalising 
the preparation for a new world, the other a no 
less important preparation for a new aera in its 
development. 

Received into the house of Pharaoh, he now 
grew up a favourite in the King's court. Between 
the care of a Jewish mother, and the advantages 
of the royal household, he doubtless acquired the 
choicest learning of his day. " The magicians of 
Egypt, and all the wise men thereof " 1 would have 
waited upon him to instruct him : and, if we give 
credit to Josephus, he became famous in the arts 
of war as well as of peace, and headed a military 
expedition into Ethiopia. Thus he spent the first 
forty years. And with all these accomplishments, 
added to the advantages of a goodly person and 
the prime season of manhood, we can scarcely over- 
estimate the temptations he must have felt to 
prefer the favours of the court of Egypt, and all 

1 Gen. xli. 8. 



II. 



26 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, the blandishments of royal luxury, before the in- 

: — terests of his country, and the sterner calls of 

duty. It is, however, recorded of him that " he 
esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than 
the treasures in Egypt." * He determined to " visit 
his brethren," and to acquaint himself by personal 
observation with their condition, and the treat- 
ment they continued to receive under their " cruel 
taskmasters." 

At this stage of his life, an action is recorded 
of him, which must have been very trying to his 
faith. In a contest between an Israelite and an 
Egyptian, he took part with the Israelite, and 
" slew the Egyptian." 2 Before he slew him he is 
recorded to have looked about him, to see that no 
other Egyptian was near ; and afterwards to have 
" hidden him in the sand." 2 The following day 
he saw two Israelites engaged in a similar contest, 
and when he offered again to interfere, one of them 
reproved him and said, " Who made thee a ruler 
and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me, 
as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday ? " 3 We 
have purposely given the express words of Scrip- 
ture in relating this transaction ; and we see no 
ground for calling the first of the actions here 
related, as some have done, the ' murder' of the 
Egyptian. There is nothing to prevent our sup- 
posing that it was a case of aggravated assault and 

1 Heb. xi. 26. 2 Ex. ii. 12. » Ex , ft u . Acts vii< 27? 2 & 



His Rupture with the Court of Pharaoh. 27 

outrage, in the first instance, on the part of the chap. 

Egyptian, which justified some violence in return, : — 

and that therefore Moses was acting on the defen- 
sive side. St. Stephen certainly puts this con- 
struction upon it, when he says (Acts vii. 24), 
" Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended 
him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and 
smote the Egyptian." It was an act, therefore, 
which rather showed his courage, and seemed 
forced upon him; and though he would hide him 
from the Egyptians, he clearly wished his own 
brethren to understand that he felt himself strongly 
moved to come forward as an avenger of his in- 
jured countrymen. He might have reckoned on a 
general rising of his own people in defence of their 
rights. Perhaps St. Stephen intimates as much, 
when he continues, " He supposed that his breth- 
ren would have understood him that God by his 
hand would deliver them, but they understood 
not." (Acts vii. 25.) On the side of the Egyp- 
tians we may regard it as a wholesome warning to 
them to repent of their oppressions ; an intimation 
that a day of vengeance might await even the 
monarch upon his throne for his wilful murder of 
the Israelitish children. To Moses the trial was 
— not that worst suffering of a troubled con- 
science (for it was no common impulse under 
which it had acted), — but the certainty of know- 
ing that by this act there was brought to an issue 
his resolution to break with Pharaoh. He must 



28 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, not only break with him, he must fly from the city, 

: — as amenable to the laws of homicide ; and where 

then was his hope of doing good to his own people, 
or of taking the lead in any measures for their 
benefit? His rejection by his own countrymen 
was more galling than the wrath of Pharaoh and 
the awakened suspicions of the Egyptian people. 
A voluntary and immediate exile was his only 
resource. With what feelings of mortified am- 
bition ! with what disconcerted hopes ! with what 
sad discouragement to his ardent patriotism, must 
he have fled — an eight days' journey as we read 
it is — into the wilds of Midian ! Here, adopting 
the garb and occupation of a shepherd, he sat down 
by a well ; and, as it chanced one day, the daughters 
of some native priest, or chieftain, came to draw 
water for their herds, and encountered the oppo- 
sition of a band of marauders, — when Moses took 
the opportunity to attack the assailants, and by 
his courage succeeded in driving them away. He 
was immediately taken into the employ of the 
father, whose name was Jethro, and whose flocks 
he tended for another forty years of his life. Can 
we read this and not forecast his future history ? 
Can we help feeling, that there was upon him, and 
everywhere following him, the mark and type of 
the future Deliverer of his people? He was now 
tending sheep in the wilderness : but there was a 
larger and more important flock awaiting him; 
there were oppressions going on, more serious than 



Was Moses the Author of the Book of Job f 29 

tlie pastoral affrays of Midian; and there was a chap. 



day of retribution coming, and Jethro's servant 
the destined instrument. He seemed but a lonely 
shepherd; yet he was training in the school of ad- 
versity, and in the retirement of the desert — in 
days of labour and nights of watching, to become 
fitted for his higher charge. In present reward of 
his fidelity, he obtained, at some later period of his 
sojourn in Midian, the hand of Jethro's daughter 
in marriage, — by whom he had two sons, one named 
Ger shorn, in remembrance of his father's wander- 
ings, and the other Eliezer. We have no certain 
evidence, but it is generally supposed that he de- 
voted his hours of leisure to the composition of 
psalms, particularly of Psalms XC. — C, which are 
those usually ascribed to Moses. The Book of 
Genesis might also have employed him, as well as 
the translation from the Arabic of the Book of 
Job. The patronymic names of two of Job's 
friends, Eliphaz and Bildad *, point clearly to Idu- 
msean, i. #., to Arabian origin. The style and 
language of the book, as well as the absence of 
directly Jewish allusions, point equally to an earlier 
date than the books of the Pentateuch : — and all 
would be explained, if we suppose the present ver- 
sion of it, as introduced into the Jewish canon, 
to be a translation by some Jewish author. Tra- 

1 Eliphaz, the Temanite, and xxxvi. 10 — 11 ; Shuah, son of 
Bildad, the Shuite : Teman being Keturah, wife of Abraham, Gen. 
son of Eliphaz, son of Esau, Gen, xxv. 2. 



30 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, dition gives it to Moses l ; and there seems every 
*= — : — probability that Midian, being contiguous to Idu- 
maea 2 , Moses was attracted by this remarkable 
book which he found there, abounding, as it does, 
with remarks and incidents full of instruction and 
consolation in times of affliction and trouble, and 
that he eventually bequeathed it, in its Hebrew 
version, to the devout use of posterity. 

Thus Moses completed another forty years of 
his life, when he was destined to receive a more 
visible appointment to his sacred office. As he was 
leading his flock near to where the wilderness of 
Midian sloped away to the heights of Horeb, the 
Almighty, by the Angel of his presence, suddenly 
appears to him in a flame of fire in a bush. The 
bush burns without consuming — apt emblem of the 
destined preservation of Israel, notwithstanding all 
the fires of persecution, and the furnace of afflic- 
tion, through which they must pass. The call is 
made to Moses, in no ambiguous terms, to become 
the leader in the great work of their deliverance. 
The backwardness of Moses to meet the call is now 
as remarkable as his forwardness on another occa- 
sion. But it is no mean symptom of merit, and no 
bad omen of success, when the first feeling is that 
of a painful consciousness of personal deficiencies. 
Forty years' perhaps sorrowful recollection of his 

1 Kimchi and the best Rabbi- Append. C. 1856. 
nical authorities. See Barry, In- 
troduction to the Old Testament, 2 See again Gen. xxv. 2. 



His Backwardness to obey the Gall. 31 

own precipitancy, had quenched somewhat of the chap. 

early impetuosity of his youth, and taught him a — 

more sober estimate of the difficulties of the charge 
proposed to him. And if it had ended there, — if, 
with the cooling down of his ambition, he had lost 
all the fire of his faith and earnest regard to duty, 
it would have been a loss to his country, and to the 
world ; — and we should have condemned the 
excess of prudence with which he debated ere he 
made his choice. But faith and the strong sense of 
duty were alive in him still ; and the timidity with 
which he at first shrank from the office proposed 
to him, gave way before the repeated assurances of 
the Divine favour and support. He who with his 
accustomed meekness had imagined himself slow of 
speech, and of a faltering tongue, was destined to 
become - - mighty in words and in deeds." l That 
highest element of character — ever the parent of 
the best Christian graces — humility within the 
heart re-assured by faith in the Divine promises, 
was seen to work in him in its full measure of 
power and energy, as was soon to be made manifest 
in the result. 

The scene of the flaming bush is instructive to 
us upon another account. We see here the terrors, 
as well as the mercies, of the Divine Majesty. The 
Almighty reveals himself by the awful name, 
Jehovah, — so sacred a name among the Jews, that 
they ever after feared to take it upon their lips. 

1 Acts vii. 22. 



32 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. The giving of this sacred name is accompanied 

: — with its explanation. The very thought of a Being 

self-existent from all eternity — must needs awaken 
the most profound sentiments of adoration and 
reverence. Nor are such feelings to be lightly 
regarded, as though they required not the food of 
such passages as these ; — as if either the conceits of 
heathen philosophy, or the witchery of heathen 
superstitions, or even the more genial revelations 
of a later dispensation, could ever do away with, 
or in any sense replace them. They are placed 
deep in the heart by our Maker, and want the 
nourishment of His own word to feed and develope 
them. Such would be the effect of the scene before 
us, if rightly contemplated and improved. " Put % 
off thy shoes from off thy feet; draw not nigh 
hither, for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
ground" was the direct command of the Almighty, 
even at the moment that He required the atten- 
dance and homage of his chosen servant ; — a lesson, 
surely, to all ages of the Church, that men should 
duly reverence God, even while He graciously con- 
descends to them in the gift of his Son and Holy 
Spirit. On this, if on any occasion, it might have 
seemed expedient to divest of its terrors the sacred 
name of Deity, and to render the approaches to 
Him easy and familiar. For on it might seem to 
depend the assurance with which Moses might 
assume to come into near relationship, as the 

1 Ex. iii. 5. 



Lesson of Reverence in approaching the Deity. 33 

interpreter of His will, and the privileged recipient chap. 

of more immediate communications. But none of 

these considerations, we see, for a moment led to 
unworthy representations of the Supreme Being. 
Yet more awful still were to be the future displays 
of His glory upon Mount Sinai. Assuredly, then, 
we are not less capable of loving God, when we 
begin by fearing Him. On the contrary, we are led 
rather to take heed, that, whether fearing or loving 
Him, we entertain alike due conceptions of His in- 
finite perfections and attributes. Need we fear that 
the motives of love to Him will be less because we 
apprehend Him as the fountain of all perfection, 
and therefore of all good to man, and of all wisdom 
and power to sustain His creatures, to protect His 
people, and to provide for the execution of His 
own laws ? Not even as Christians, then, — not 
as enjoying all the privileges of the better covenant, 
and the one all-prevailing Mediator, — not as being 
invited, in Christ's name, to draw near with filial 
" boldness to the throne of grace," x — are we entitled 
to forget that the throne of grace is a throne still, 
and that it must ever be as petitioners, dependent 
wholly on the grace and mercy sought, that we 
draw near. 

His instructions are now to go forward to his 
work. " I have surely seen the affliction of my 
people which are in Egypt, and have heard their 

1 Heb. iv. 16. 
D 



34 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, cry by reason of their taskmasters Come 

— - — now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, 
that thou may est bring forth my people the chil- 
dren of Israel out of Egypt." 1 He is assured that 
he shall meet Aaron by the way, who shall come 
out to him from the land of Egypt, and returning 
with him there lend the weight of his authority and 
influence (for he was doubtless even then a chief 
officer in Israel), to secure the respectful hearing of 
at least his own brethren and countrymen. Aaron 
was also to relieve him in being spokesman to the 
people and before Pharaoh. There is a remarkable 
simplicity in the manner in which the shepherd of 
Midian takes leave of his master and father-in-law, 
Jethro. There is no concealing from him the fact 
of his proposed departure, nor any parade of the 
distinguished honour that had been put upon him. 
Neither boasting of his high call, nor attempting to 
carry it with a high hand, he simply requests leave 
of absence, and says, " Let me go, I pray thee, and 
return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and 
see whether they be yet alive." 2 His wife and 
children accompany him, but not far ; and then, 
(as we are led to gather by indirect inference from 
Scripture 3 , and as we find confirmed by Jewish 
tradition), he commits them to the care of Jethro 
and proceeds on his way. And thus, bidding adieu 
to long- cherished ties, and committing wife and 

1 Ex. iii. 7—10. 2 Ex. iy. 18. 3 See Ex. xviii. 5—7. 






Retributive Justice displayed. 35 

children to Him who never suffers the righteous to chap. 

ii. 
be forsaken, nor his seed to beg their bread 1 , he : — 

takes the first great step in his appointed mission, 
— fit type of those who should hereafter be called 
to "forsake all and follow Christ." 2 As the cre- 
dentials of their authority, the two fathers of Israel 
were to be armed with a rod, which being let go 
should turn to a serpent, and again to its natural 
form when taken up. Thus armed they arrive 
in the land of Egypt, and, on the exhibition of 
their credentials, are received with favour by their 
own people ; but Pharaoh, deluded by the subtlety 
of his magicians, hardens his heart against them. 
Again and again they appeal to their Divine com- 
mission, and perforin wonders in the sight of 
Pharaoh, which the art of the magicians in vain 
strives to counterfeit. The Nile is turned to blood 
— foul creatures pollute the land — diseases break 
out on man and beast — grievous hail and a pro- 
found darkness prevail ;— but the monarch's heart is 
hardened still. It would not have been surprising 
if the thunderbolts of Heaven had been launched 
at once against the guilty land; for, besides the 
obduracy of Pharaoh, the cry of blood was still 
going up, and the murder of the innocent children 
was still unavenged. It seems, indeed, that a fitting 
retribution for that atrocious act of cruelty formed 
one great part in the counsels of the Almighty 
at this crisis. He had threatened it at the outset ; 

1 Ps. xxxvii. 25. 2 Luke, v. 28. 

d 2 



36 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. " Israel ] is my son, even my firstborn : and I say 
— unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me : 
and if thou refuse to let him go, I will slay thy son, 
even thy first-born." But the judgment first 
threatened was the last fulfilled. It was reserved 
for the last of the ten plagues to touch the life of 
man ; and the stroke now fell upon the firstborn, — 
" from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat upon the 
throne to the firstborn of the captive that was in 
the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle," 2 and 
u there was not an house where there was not one 
dead." Thus, in perfect consistency with the usual 
order of Providence, it was not till milder methods 
had been tried that resort was had to severer 
courses. 

We have not dwelt minutely on the several 
plagues, nor shall we enter at length upon the in- 
stitution of the Passover, and all the different cir- 
cumstances of the Exodus, as they seem to have but 
little bearing on the life and character of Moses. 
There is one circumstance, however, which may re- 
quire some special comment. We read 3 that on 
the eve of their departure they " borrowed of the 
Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and 
raiment ; and the Lord gave the people favour in 
the sight of the Egyptians, and they spoiled the 
Egyptians." This act of the Israelites " spoiling the 
Egyptians" has been objected to, as a breach of faith 

1 Ex. iv. 23. 2 Ex. xii. 29—30. 3 Ex. xii. 35, 36. 



No Injustice in " spoiling " £/i6 Egyptians. 37 

in not returning the things which they are described chap. 

as having " borrowed " of them. But it is by no : — 

means certain that the two actions refer to the same 
thing; and even if they did, the word " borrow " in 
the English text may signify to "ask" in the Hebrew, 
which they might innocently have done, and there 
was then no wrong committed in keeping the things 
which had been gratuitously given. It has also 
been ingeniously remarked, that as the Israelites 
had been long employed on the public works, it is 
more than probable that some proportion of wages 
was due to them, and that what they now received 
and carried off as spoil was no more than the arrears 
of wages justly due to their account. Thus also a 
sort of price of their redemption was paid, and the 
event became more emphatically typical of a Re- 
demption to come, according to the description of 
the Psalmist, " He brought them forth also with 
silver and gold, there was not one feeble person 
among their tribes." x The great design of calling 
out a peculiar people, and of placing Moses at 
their head as Judge and Lawgiver of Israel, was 
rapidly receiving its accomplishment. How great 
a change was that which had exalted him from 
a desert to a judgment-seat! See him, but a 
few short months before, a shepherd in the lonely 
wilderness ; thence sallying forth as a pilgrim with 
staff in hand, venturing all upon the faith of the 
miraculous vision which he had witnessed, and alone 

1 Ps. cv. 37, 

D 3 



38 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, setting out, to encounter single-handed, or at least 

with one solitary companion, the whole might 

and wisdom of Egypt " — that cherished land of art 
and science. How contrary to all human proba- 
bility that such an errand should succeed ! We 
see nothing enthusiastic, nothing savouring of 
ambitious dreams ; no thought of personal aggran- 
disement among the motives which animated Moses 
on this occasion of his Divine mission. If he obeyed 
the call, which thus led him from a life of compa- 
rative ease and retirement to one of toil and painful 
responsibility, it was reluctantly and with many 
misgivings. But out of weakness he was made 
strong by an invisible power; — while his own 
sense of the infirmities with which even the best of 
men are encompassed, deepened by a long expe- 
rience in the school of adversity, and by the many 
trials of a chequered life, well fitted him for the 
cares of government, and gave him a ready sym- 
pathy in the wants and infirmities of others. 

We may observe, in passing, the truly Catholic 
character of many of the passages in the life of 
Moses. They show the high rank he must ever 
occupy in his historic, independently of his personal, 
capacity, as principal actor in these scenes. The 
oppressions and afflictions of Israel are forcible 
images of the sufferings of the Church in every age. 
The land of Egypt, and the house of bondage, 
are plainly the dominion of sin, and the service 
of the Prince of Darkness ; and the deliverance 



Analogy of Egyptian and Christian Redemption. 39 

from bondage no less forcibly represents the great chap. 

future deliverance. Jehovah is now " our Father '— 

which hath bought us;" l "the blood of the Lamb 
sprinkled on the door-posts " 2 of the children of 
Israel is that more precious blood of the " Lamb of 
God which taketh away the sins of the world ;" 3 we, 
like them, but in a far higher sense, were to become 
the " redeemed " people of the Lord, brought out 
from the natural condition of helplessness and 
misery into communion with the one true God; 
to be the depositories of His revealed will, and, 
under the sense of their manifold obligations, to 
walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve 
the Lord our God with all the heart, and with all the 
soul." 4 And, as if to impress the parallel on our 
minds, it was so contrived that the means were as 
emblematic as the action itself. There was not 
only the " silver and gold " and the " death of the 
firstborn," but another and more distinct witness of 
Him who " came by water and blood." 5 The baptism 
of water in the Ked Sea, and the consecration of 
the people to their covenant state " in the cloud 
and in the sea," 6 were no less typical than the blood 
of the Paschal lamb itself, of the future blessings 
of that better and more enduring covenant which 
was to be ratified in the blood of Christ, and 
sealed at the baptismal font. We might pursue 



1 Deut. xxxii. 6. 4 Dent. x. 12. 

2 Ex. xii. 3-7, 21, 22. 5 1 John v. 6. 

3 John i. 29. 6 1 Cor. x. 2. 

d 4 



40 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, the parallel further, were it not anticipating 
" — '- — the sequel of the history. The passage of the 
Red Sea was the point at which we had just 
arrived. There, at a place where the sea is some 
eight or nine miles across, and where the temple- 
fortress of Baalzephon overlooked the mountain 
gorge of Pihahiroth, the Israelites, numbering 
600,000 fighting men, besides women and children, 
and a mixed multitude of retainers, passed over 
before their enemies, the sea making a safe and 
dry passage before them, while it swallowed up the 
Egyptian host in its depths. The " strong east 
wind," 1 of which the writer makes special mention, 
might have tempted the Egyptians to imagine that 
it was the force of the elements, and not the power 
of the Almighty, which drove back the waves, and 
that, therefore, the pursuers might follow in safety. 
We might otherwise wonder at the selection of 
that solitary circumstance, in a narrative which 
supplies so few particulars. There were probably 
many others handed down by tradition: — the 
Jewish historian tells us 2 of fierce wind and tem- 
pests, storms of hail and rain, fearful thunderings 
and lightnings; and so, too, the Psalmist 3 , "The 
waters saw Thee, God, the waters saw Thee, 
and were afraid ; the depths also were troubled. 
The clouds poured out water ; the air thundered, 

1 Ex. xiv. 21. Ps. lxxviii. 13 ; Is. lxiii. 11, 12 ; 

2 Joseph. Ant. lib. ii. Habak. iii. 15 ; "Wisdom xix. 7, 
8 Ps. lxxvii. 16, &c. Sec also &c. 



IL 



Different Accounts of Red Sea Passage. 41 

and Thine arrows went abroad. The voice of Thy chap. 
thunder was heard round about; the lightning 
shone upon the ground ; the earth was moved, and 
shook withal." If we may believe Artapanus, as 
quoted by Eusebius and Clemens Alexandrinus \ 
the people of Heliopolis, in Egypt, were wont to 
give much the same account of the Exodus as this 
in Holy Writ ; but those of Memphis ascribed the 
escape of the Israelites to the artifice of Moses 
in marching over his army at a time of low water. 
We may trace, in the hesitating and contradictory 
statements of Manetho, a reluctant testimony to 
the substantial truth of the Scripture narrative. 
It is, however, to be remarked that, in a matter of 
this kind, the authority of Jewish tradition alone 
would be sufficient. It comes down to us as part 
and parcel of their national history : the idea of im- 
posture at some later period is, as we have stated 
in a former chapter 2 , effectually precluded by the 
circumstances of the case. We have now to fol- 
low Moses in a new stage of his career, and through 
the labours of his public administration. 



Contemporary History of -Egypt. — Beyond tlie scattered 
notices in Scripture, the principal authorities to be consulted 
on the early history of Egypt are these : Herodotus, Manetho, 
Eratosthenes, Diodorus, Plutarch. Herodotus, B.C. 460 ; Ma- 
netho, B.C. 280; Eratosthenes, B.C. 240; Diodorus, B.C. 56. 

Of these, Manetho and Eratosthenes were natives of Egypt ; 

1 Prsep. Evang. ix. 27 j Strom, i. 2 See above, Chap. i. p. 15. 



42 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP. Manetho belonged to an ancient order of priests of Heliopolis, 
H- and was employed by Ptolemy Philadelphus to translate into 

Greek the lists of kings which were preserved in the temples, 
and also to collect the historical records of their reigns. Un- 
fortunately we have only a feAV fragments of both these authors, 
preserved by Josephus, Africanus, and Eusebius, but the lists of 
kings are tolerably perfect, and comprise thirty dynasties, from 
Menes, the first king, to Darius. If the transcribers of Manetho 
were all agreed, we might here have some certain data. But 
the lists in Africanus, who came a century before Eusebius, show 
the number of 452 kings, while in Eusebius, the number is 334; and 
there are other considerable differences between them. In the Greek 
authors we meet with still greater differences. Thus, Herodotus 
and Diodorus, while they agree in stating that Egypt was first 
governed for a long period by gods, then by demigods, and lastly 
by mortals, yet entirely disagree in the names of these pretended 
sovereigns, in the duration of their reigns, and in the acts which 
they performed. The Egyptian priests, indeed, told Herodotus, 
" that they had always computed the years, and kept written ac- 
counts of them with the greatest accuracy." — ■ Herod, ii. 145. 
" But as," says Sir John Stoddart, (Introduction to Universal 
History, p. 210,) they asserted this no less positively respecting 
the thousands of years of gods, than respecting the shorter reigns 
of mortal kings, the assertion was no doubt equally false in both 
cases." It seems also to have been almost brought to a demon- 
stration by Bockh, that Manetho, in his dates, took for granted 
so many revolutions of a certain Sothiac period of 1460 years, 
arbitrarily assuming seventeen such periods for his reigns of 
gods, and three for the ordinary reigns, down to B.C. 1322, him- 
self living in the next or fourth of these periods of mortal 
kings. 

If we go to the Greek authors, Diodorus tells us that up to 
the time of Alexander the Great, Egypt had been governed 
33,000 years; — the first 18,000 by gods and demigods, and the 
last 15,000 by men. It is at once obvious, that for the matter of 
dates at least, we had better turn to some better guides than 
either the Greeks or the Egyptian priests. Now Manetho's ac- 
count, though doubtless in some particulars he was much preju- 
diced, as all Egyptians were, in favour of some fabulous antiquity 



Accounts of the Exodus in profane History. 43 

of his nation and religion, and these prejudices perhaps were CHAP. 
newly awakened by the large concourse of Jews under Ptolemy IJ - 

Philadelphus, and the recent LXX translation of the Hebrew 
Scriptures, yet can we not suppose that setting apart his obvious 
passion for magnifying ad libitum the historic periods, he would 
venture upon an entire perversion of any notorious fact within 
the range of existing records. He is therefore not unfrequently 
regarded as on the whole our- safest guide to the antiquities of 
Egypt. He makes the total of years from Menes to Alexander, 
3555 (compare, above, the three Sothiac periods of Bockh, which 
nearly coincide). Others, with Dr. Lepsius, and many able 
modern critics, go rather to Eratosthenes, — a fragment of which 
celebrated author affords a useful " canon" of computation, where 
he gives the names of certain Memphite kings, from the first 
foundation of Memphis to the capture of that city by the 
Shepherd Kings during the reign of Amun Timceus ; assigning to 
this period 1076 years. 

Before we pass on to compare results, it may be expedient to 
premise something as to the Hebrew and LXX chronologies. 
These notoriously differ by many years. The tendency of modern 
criticism, however, inclines decidedly to the adoption of the LXX, 
which adds 600 to the years from the Creation to the Flood ; and 
about 800 from the Flood to the call of Abraham. The LXX 
chronology is confirmed by Josephus, and we are indebted to the 
learned Dr. Hales, in his Analysis of Sacred Chronology, &c, 
for an elaborate revision of the LXX computation which he 
clearly shows to be the more reliable of the two ; nay, the only 
one consistent with the known facts of history. We are now 
prepared for the question, Do any of these writers mention the 
Exodus ? and if so, what light do they throw on the time at 
which it happened ? In Diodorus we find the following account : 
" A plague having broke out in Egypt, many persons attributed 
the cause of the evil to the anger of the Divinity ; for there were 
many strangers there from all parts, who used foreign rites in the 
sacred ministries and sacrifices, whence it came to pass that the 
ancient honours of the gods fell into neglect ; and the original 
inhabitants began to fear that unless they removed from among 
them the foreigners, they should never be relieved from their 
afflictions. The men of other nations, therefore, were expelled ; 



44 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP. an ^ of these the noblest and bravest, under the guidance of 
H- Danaus, Cadmus, and other celebrated leaders, came into Greece 
and the parts adjacent ; but the more numerous body were driven 
out into Judasa, a country adjoining to Egypt, but at that time 
wholly deserted. The leader of this colony was named Moses, 
a man of excellent wisdom and fortitude, who, occupying that 
region, built there many cities, and particularly the most cele- 
brated of all, Jerusalem, with its temple." — Biod. i. 40. 

The account of Manetho is broken into two parts. In the first 
part he relates how, " in the reign of Timceus" (comp. the " Amun 
Timams " of Eratosthenes, above), " there came men of ignoble 
birth out of the Eastern parts, and had boldness enough to make an 
expedition into our country, . . . rebuilt the city of Avaris on the 
Bubastic channel of the Nile, and held the country 511 years : this 
whole nation was called Hycsos, i.e. ' Shepherd Kings : ' — that at last 
another king of Egypt, Thummosisby name, came to a composition 
with them to leave Egypt, and go, without any harm done to 
them, whithersoever they would ; so they went away with their 
Avhole families and effects, not fewer than 240,000, and took their 
journey into Syria, and built a city named Jerusalem." — Manetho, 
quoted by Josephus, lib. c. Apion. % § 14. Subsequently, and much 
to the indignation of Josephus, the Egyptian historian introduces 
the same people as invited back again, to occupy the said city of 
Avaris, by certain disaffected subjects in Egypt, who had also 
been cast out of the rest of the country as leprous and maimed ! 
That some of the learned priests also were polluted with them ; and 
that they appointed themselves a ruler out of the priests of Heli- 
opolis, whose name was Osarsiph, changed afterwards to Moses; that 
he made this law for them, that they should neither worship the 
Egyptian gods nor abstain from any one of those sacred animals 
which they have in the highest esteem, but kill and destroy all. . . . 
That because of their strength and number, King Amenophis was 
obliged to hide himself in Ethiopia, out of their reach, for thirteen 
years . . . after which, however, he, with his son Eamses, joined 
battle with the Shepherds and the polluted people . . . and pursued 
them to the bounds of Syria." Josephus adduces other instances 
of a concerted plan among the Greek and Egyptian authors to vilify 
his countrymen and their ancestors; and particularly Lysimachus, 
whose account bears still more evident marks of being only a 



Distorted Account of Lysimachus. 45 

distorted tradition of the Exodus. He says, " The people of the CHAR 
Jews being leprous and scabby, and subject to certain other IT - 

kinds of distempers, in the days of Bocchoris, King of Egypt, fled 
to the temples and got their food there by begging, and their 
numbers being very great, there arose a scarcity in Egypt. Here- 
upon the king sent to consult the oracle of Jupiter Amnion, 
and obtained instruction to purge out the impure and impious 
people, and expel them into desert places. Accordingly the 
king ordered this to be clone, and to take the leprous people, 
and wrap them in sheets of lead and let them down into the sea. 
Hereupon some were drowned, and the rest were gotten together 
and sent into desert places, in order to be exposed to destruction. 
In this plight they assembled themselves together and took counsel 
what they should do, and determined that, as the night was 
coming on, they should kindle fires and lamps, and keep watch ; 
that they also should fast the next night, and propitiate the gods 
in order to obtain deliverance from them. On the next day there 
was one Moses, who advised them that they should venture on 
a journey, and go along one road till they should come to places 
fit for habitation ; that he charged them to have no kind regards 
for any man, nor give good counsel to any, but always to advise 
them for the worst, and to overturn all those temples and altars 
of the gods they should meet with ; that the rest commended 
what he had said with one consent, and did what they had re- 
solved on, and so travelled over the desert. But that the diffi- 
culties of the journey being over, they came to a country 
inhabited, and that there they abused the men, and plundered 
and burnt their temples, and then came into that land which is 
called Judeea, and there they built a city, and dwelt therein ; and 
that their city was termed ' HierosylaJ from this their robbing 
of the temples ; but they afterwards, from pure shame, changed the 
name to Hierosolyma." — Lib. c.Apion., § 26, 28,34. Well might 
the united ignorance and insolence of such a charge as the latter 
fire the indignation of Josephus. " So we see," he says, " that 
this fine fellow hath such an unbounded inclination to reproach 
us, that he did not understand that robbery of temples is not 
expressed by the same word and name among the Jews as it is 
among the Greeks ! " A more surprising thing is, that Josephus 
himself, in his equally blind desire to magnify the antiquity of his 



46 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, countrymen, by associating the Exodus exclusively with the earlier 
H- part of the account above quoted from Manetho, which would 
make the Israelites the " Shepherd Kings," should not have per- 
ceived the obvious application of the latter part of it to that event, 
and the painful but palpable perversion of the true account there 
obviously to be detected. Had it been the express object of 
Manetho to mix up the most incongruous things, and to throw 
discredit on a transaction, the truth of which he could neither 
wholly suppress nor openly deny, he could scarcely have devised 
a better or more artful method. He has so effectually confounded 
the two separate events, viz., the Exodus of the Hebrews and 
the expulsion of the Phoenician Shepherds, — Osarsiph, Avith 
Joseph, and both with Moses, &c, — that it is scarcely to be won- 
dered at that Josephus himself was deceived ; and regardless of 
the existence, elsewhere so often recognised, of a race of Shep- 
herd Kings, in his zeal to apply it to his own ancestors, altered 
the very signification of the term, and made the Hycsos to mean 
Shepherd-copies / Chasremon, Artapanus, and others, might 
be urged in further proof of this event being mentioned by heathen 
writers ; but we will proceed at once to the next point, viz. the 
date of the Exodus. After which we shall endeavour to ascertain 
the name of the reigning sovereign of Egypt, and what was the 
condition of that celebrated people at the time ? 



I. The date of the Exodus. 

After what has been said as to the great disparities between 
the Hebrew and the LXX chronologies, we cannot but be struck 
by observing, in the first place, that the date of the Exodus is 
nearly the same in both those systems ; the Hebrew, according 
to Ussher, placing it B.C. 1491 ; and the LXX, according to 
Scaliger, 1497 (varying in other accounts from 1509 to 1593). 
— See Hale's Chronology, vol. i. p. 215, ed. 1830; Sir John 
Stoddart, Introduction, Dissert. 2. But besides this, we believe 
we can show a convergency of other circumstances pointing to 
the same period for the date in question. To show this we have 
but to estimate (1) from the Flood to Menes, the first king of 
Egypt ; (2) from Menes to the celebrated XVIIIth Dynasty ; 
(3) from Dynasty XVIII. to the Exodus. (1.) As to the first of 



The Date of the Exodus computed. 47 

these periods, considering the probable identification of Menes CHAP. 

with Mizraim, the son of Ham (for which see Cumberland's — 

Sanchoniatho, § 2 5 ditto, Notes on the Table of Eratosthenes, § 2 ; 
Shuckford, Sacred and Profane History, b. xi.), and that Egypt, 
being contiguous to Arabia and Central Asia, was probably peopled 
soon after the Flood, we may here side with the calculation 
which places the foundation of Memphis by Menes about 290 
years after the Flood. 1 (2.) On the next period, viz. from Menes 
to Dynasty XVIIL, we shall be assisted at once by the Canon of 
Eratosthenes, referred to above, and which gives from the foun- 
dation of Memphis, by Menes, to - its capture by the Shepherd 
Kings, who put an end to the XVIth Dynasty, 1076 years. Adding 
to this, 103 years for the duration of Dynasty XVII. (as Eusebius 
gives it from Manetho), we have from Menes to the beginning of 
Dynasty XVIIL a total of years 1076 + 103 = 1179. But to check 
this part of the calculation, (as it is here, perhaps, that the prin- 
cipal difficulty lies,) let us take the dates assigned to this second 
period by the most approved modern Egyptologers, (a.) EaAvlin- 
son and "Wilkinson (see Rawlinson's Herod, vol. ii., Append. 
b. 2, c. viii.) give us, 

From Menes to Dynasty VI. .... 700 yrs. 

From Dynasty VI. to Dynasty XVIIL, 

At the longest, 625 1 f 625 -1 



At the shortest, 511 J Mean Period | 511 

2)1136 
568 



h 568 



Total of years from Menes to Dynasty XVIIL . 1268 „ 

(b.) Osbrmi gives us Dyn. I. — Dyn. XII. =470 years; Dyn. 
XII. to end of Dyn. XIX. = 645 years; total, 1115 years. 
Subtract 194 years for duration of Dyn. XIX., the remainder 
= period from Dyn. I. (or Menes) to Dyn. XVIIL =921 years. 
(See Osburn's Egypt, ii. 633.) Comparing these with our former 

1 It will be seen afterwards But as this date in a measure rides 
that this computation would give the rest, (though even, in case of 
for the date of Menes, b. c. 3343. error, it woidd be easy to allow 



48 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, results, and taking the average of the three, we have — 

II. 
1179 

1268 

921 



3)3368 



1122 years as the approximate 
duration of the second interval. 

(3.) Proceeding now to the third subdivision of our period, we 
must observe that the Shepherd Kings, after they had possessed 
themselves of Memphis, and held it during Dynasty XVII., were in 
turn overcome and finally expelled by Amosis (sometimes writ- 
ten Tethmosis, Tutmosis, &c), the first king of Dynasty XVIII. 
And this, be it observed, is no obscure period of Egyptian his- 
tory ; but with the joint aid of the monuments, of recent researches^ 
and of historical documents, we here enter on a comparatively 
lucid field, where some tolerable certainty begins to be had. 
We shall, therefore, have less difficulty in settling the interval 
now under our consideration. The first point will be to ascer- 
tain when Joseph arrived in Egypt. In answer, there can 
scarcely be a doubt, after the great pains that have been bestowed 
by Dr. Hales, and other archaeologists in this field of research, 
that Joseph arrived in Egypt at a time when Hycsos op- 
pression was now past, and when it must have rendered the 
name of Shepherd " an abomination to the Egyptians." (See 
Gen. xlvi. 34.) We have other intimations (Gen. xlii. 9 ; xlvii. 



for it in adding up the three pe- date of Menes b. c. 3892 ; Uhle- 

riods, the effect being simply to man (JEgyptisch. Atterthums- 

throw the total date of the Exodus kunde, iii. 12) makes it b. c. 

somewhat earlier or later), it may 2782. Taking the average of 

be better here to take another which gives us, — 
estimate of the date of Menes, 3892 

derived from two celebrated Ger- 2782 

man Egyptologers, Lepsius and 

Uhleman. Lepsius, going by the 2 ) 6674 

extracts in Syncellus (a.d. 760) 

from the " Anonymous Chronicle " b.c. 3337 for another 

of the Kings of Egypt, makes the approximate date of Menes. 



Date of Exodus computed. 49 

6). " Ye are spies ; to see the nakedness of the land ye are CHAP. 
come," can imply no less than a suspicion, at the time spoken of, EL 

that opportunities were still watched for on the Phoenician or 
Syrian side for fresh invasions, — a probability, therefore, that 
the memory of some earlier ones was still fresh. Nor is it pro- 
bable that Joseph would have been required to " look out" from 
among the Israelites, " men of activity "(see xlvii. 6) to 
take charge of the cattle in Egypt, had not a strong aversion still 
subsisted among the Egyptians to an occupation associated with 
their late oppressors. Again, if Joseph had arrived before the 
expulsion of the Shepherds, the latter event could hardly fail to 
have been named in the Scripture history, during the subsequent 
years of the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt. So great an event 
could hardly have passed without, at least, some allusion to it. 
And Dr. Hales has very clearly shown, that the persecution of 
the Israelites, which arose after Joseph, was not under the sway 
of the Shepherd Dynasty, but arose from quite a different 
quarter ; and in short, that Joseph came to Egypt some time 
(Dr. Hales puts it at 13, Bishop Cumberland at 96, Kitto at 70, 
years) after the Shepherd Dynasty was put an end to by Amosis, 
at the commencement of the XVIIIth Dynasty. (See also, to 
the same effect, Kitto's History of Palestine, b. i. c. ii., and 
Pictorial Bible, note on Ex. i. 8.) Only that Kitto is peculiar 
in not making the expulsion under Amosis the actual termination 
of the Shepherds' reign, the total duration of which he computes, 
after Manetho, at 511 years : but instead of these years expiring 
with the reign of Amosis, he puts Amosis only 250 years after 
the beginning of that period; — not attempting to explain what 
became of the Shepherd Kings afterwards, and as if they had 
received a second expulsion and subjugation after another 261 
years, though we have nowhere any record of it. From Joseph's 
arrival we must add 23 years, according to the Scripture 
account, between that and the arrival of Jacob, and thence, for 
the sojourn of Israel in Egypt until their final departure at the 
Exodus, 215 years. (See Stackhouse, b. iii, c. v., Dissertation 5 ; 
Mant's Bible, notes on Ex. xii, 30.) 

Putting now all these intervals, (1), (2), and (3), together, 
we have 



50 



Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. 
II. 



Years. 

(1.) From the Flood to Menes . . .200 

(2.) From Menes to Dynasty XVIII. . .1122 

(3.) From beginning of Dynasty XVIII. to Exodus 

(13 + 23 + 215) ' . . . .251 



Total years from the Flood to the Exodus 



1573 



Now for the Flood we have two very different dates ; the Hebrew 
B.C. 2348, the LXX and Josephus (as corrected by Dr. Hales) 
B.C. 3758. 

3758 

2348 2348' 

705 



Average date of Flood 



2 ) 1410 

705 



3053 



^b.c. 3053. 



Subtracting from this the number of years from Flood to Exodus, 
we have for 

3053 



Date of Exodus 



1573 



1480 



- B.C. 1480 ; 



a remarkable approximation, at least, to the traditionary date of 
this event, as taken above from the Hebrew and LXX. 



II. The reigning Sovereign of Egypt, and condition of that 
country, at the time of the Exodus. 

There remains the last question, as to the name of the 
reigning sovereign in Egypt, — the Pharaoh whose armies were 
overthrown in the Eed Sea. That the Egyptian priests and chroni- 
clers would studiously have concealed both the nature of the disaster 
and the name of the sovereign, we can easily imagine. It may 
be reserved to future researches among the monuments, already 
so fruitful of important results, to throw fresh light on these 
points. As it is, we may justly say of those monuments, " cum 
tacent, clamant." " Loaded as they are," observes Sir John 
Stoddart, " with innumerable records of the triumphs of their 
kings, their silence on this point decisively shows that the ex- 
pulsion was productive to Egypt of nothing but misery and dis- 



Amenophis IIL and Harnesses two likely Names. 51 

grace. Different chronologists having fixed this event at B.C. CHAP. 
1648, 1608, 1593, 1509, and 1491, all which dates fell within H. ' 
Manetho's period of the XVIIIth Dynasty, it follows that several 
sovereigns of that dynasty have been supposed to be the Pharaoh 
who then reigned, e.g., Memphres, Amenophthis, Achencheres, 
&c. ; but it does not appear that the discoveries hitherto made, 
either corroborate or weaken any of these conjectures." Stoddart, 
Introduction to Universal History, p. 215. Notwithstanding, 
however, the uncertainty here expressed by the learned writer, 
many things point strongly to one particular reign. It should 
also be borne in mind, that we are far more likely to get upon 
the traces of any given event in early history, by attending to 
names and circumstances, than by binding ourselves to chrono- 
logical calculations, the dates of which must always, in the vary- 
ing modes of computation, and at the great distance of time, be 
subject to very considerable suspicion. It is, however, an old 
opinion, and confirmed by circumstantial evidence, as well as by 
the conclusions of thoughtful inquirers, that the king concerned in 
the Exodus was the last king of the XVIIIth Dynasty. Manetho, 
as reported by Josephus, calls him expressly Amenophis, and, to 
distinguish him from other kings of the same name, he tells us 
he was the father of Eamses and Armais, or, as he elsewhere 
calls them, Sethos and Danaus. Though Manetho contrives to 
varnish over the true facts of the history, and to hide the real 
nature of a catastrophe which involved disgrace and defeat to 
the Egyptians, we have no reason to impute to him any wilful 
concealment or perversion of the name of the sovereign, any 
more than of that of Moses on the other side, which he reports 
correctly enough. "We have in the same book of Josephus, lib. c. 
Apio?i., i. § 32, the further authority of Chagremon, a Greek his- 
torian, for ascribing the event to this reign. As the tables of the 
Egyptian dynasties may not be at hand, it may be convenient 
here to transcribe the brief but very exact list in Josephus of 
the whole XVIIIth Dynasty, which he has evidently preserved with 
special care. His account is as follows, — lib. c. Apion., i. § 15: 
" Tethmosis, who drove out the Shepherds, reigned afterward 
twenty-five years and four months, and then died ; after him, 
his son Chebron took the kingdom for thirteen years ; after 
whom came Amenophis, for twenty years and seven months ; then 

E 2 



52 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, came his sister Amessis, for twenty-one years and nine months ; 
H. after her came Mephres, for twelve years and nine months ; after 
him was Mephramuthosis, for twenty-five years and ten months ; 
after him, Tethmosis, for nine years and eight months ; after him 
came Amenophis, for thirty years and ten months ; after him 
came Orus, for thirty- six years and five months ; after him came 
his daughter Acenchres, for twelve years and one month ; then 
was her brother Eathotis, for nine years ; then was Achencheres, 
for twelve years and five months ; then another Achencheres, for 
twelve years and three months ; after him Armais, for four years 
and one month ; after him was Harnesses, for one year and four 
months ; after him came Eamesses Miammoun, for sixty-six years 
and two months ; after him Amenophis, for nineteen years and 
six months ; after him [Sethosis and] Harnesses, who had an 
army of horse and a naval force." From what he says after- 
wards, it seems that Sethosis and Eamesses were the same. There 
was another brother, Armais the Second, or Danaus, but Eamesses 
was the successor on the throne ; and with him commences the 
next dynasty, viz., Dynasty XIX. And here comes a remark- 
able circumstance : — both Sethosis, Eamesses, and his next suc- 
cessor, Ehampses, have very long reigns : to the first 59, and to 
the second 66 years are ascribed. Here at once there appears a 
suspicion of some king being omitted altogether, and the years 
of his reign added to his successor's. The omitted king might 
be some father, or son associated with his father, who fell a 
victim in the Eed Sea, or on the sudden death of the first-born. 
We have another landmark, as it were, in the royal name, so 
common about this time, viz., Eamses, or Eamessis. Now the 
frontier-city of the same name might well be imagined to be 
called after the first king of this name, and it was built, we know, 
at the time of the Exodus, because the Israelites were at that 
time employed in building it, as we read (Ex. i. 11) : " They 
did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. 
And they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom andEaamses." 
Both these circumstances agree well with the supposition of 
Amenophis being king at the time, who was father to one, and 
grandson or son of another Eamses. Kitto's advocacy of the earlier 
reign of Thotmes III. (see note, Ex. ii. 12), as the date required, 
implies throughout an earlier date for the Shepherd expulsion. 



Horses in Egypt an Indication of Date. 53 

That author agrees with us, in making Joseph's arrival shortly CHAP. 
after the expulsion of the Shepherd-Kings, and that they were jj; 

expelled under Amosis at the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty. 
But from the beginning of their reign to the reign of this Amosis, 
he makes only 250 years, though he allows for the total of their 
reign 511 years; whereas, according to the usual account, these 
511 years expire with Amosis; and as Joseph arrived very 
shortly after, this of course brings down his arrival, and the time 
of the Exodus along with it, to a much later period than Kitto. 
It is not, therefore, surprising that this writer should have referred 
the Exodus to the earlier reign of Thotmes III., in the middle 
of Dynasty XVIII. Yet this is to contradict or ignore the express 
authority of Josephus, who in this particular dynasty (the XVIIIth) 
evidently bestowed the most minute attention on the names and 
dates of his kings, and who plainly refers the Shepherd expulsion 
to Amosis, the first king of the XVIIIth Dynasty. Nor is he 
suspected of being wrong in his names and dates, though, as we 
have before observed, he was misled to confound the two distinct 
events of the expulsion and the Exodus. The bricks, in making 
which the Israelites were made to labour, would suit well 
enough with either, as it appears that, from Thotmes III. onwards, 
this material was more and more used in the great public works 
and monuments of Egypt. (See Eawlinson's Herod. ,b. ii. § 136.) 
Kitto well remarks : " The fact of his abundant use of bricks 
is not the least interesting or important of those numerous cor- 
roborations of the Pentateuch which the study of Egyptian 
antiquities has of late years produced." The same author, in 
what he says of the " horses " of Pharaoh, — so circumstantially 
introduced in the account of the Exodus, — has omitted a distinc- 
tion which throws considerable light on our subject. He says : 
" wherever armies are represented on the monuments of Egypt, 
they are represented as composed of troops of infantry armed 
with bow or lance, and of ranks of chariots drawn by two 
horses." And of such chariots and their mounted drivers, he 
interprets the Scripture expression of the " horse and the rider ;" 
and again, " The Egyptians pursued and went after them into 
the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and 
his horsemen." But he does not seem aware, that even this 
limited introduction of horse into the armies of Egypt may be 

e 3 



54 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, looked upon as another indication of the XVIIIth Dynasty. For 
IJ - we are assured by Wilkinson that it was during the reign of Amosis 
that mention is first made of the horse on the monuments ; but 
that neither at the tombs about the Pyramids, nor at Beni Has- 
san, is there any indication of the horse, though the animals of the 
country are so numerous in their paintings. (See Eawlinson's 
Herod., Appendix, b. ii. § 18.) 

If we now search further among the monuments, we may even 
get nearer upon the track of the fated monarch of the Exodus. 
We are now speaking at second hand, as we have not ourselves 
travelled among the ruins of Egypt. But it appears there is a 
king, called Si-phtha on the monuments, of whom Mr. Osburn 
tells us {Egypt, vol. ii. c. ix.) " that there is a tomb at Biban-el- 
Malook, near Thebes, commenced with great magnificence by a 
monarch who never lay in it, and who may be identified with the 
Pharaoh who perished in the Eed Sea. His hieroglyphic name 
is Siphtha." Another account adds, " The tomb of Siphtha, in 
the Babel-Malook, originally exhibited on its walls his shield 
and that of his wife ; but they have been covered with plaster, 
and other inscriptions substituted for them. The name of the 
king who thus usurped the sepulchre of another is not clearly 
made out, owing to the number of characters, not phonetic, with 
which the shield is filled ; but it seems to be Merir or Merira. 
His name is also on the granite sarcophagus which remains, 
though broken. In the Procession of Medinet-Aboo, his shield 
follows that of Seti Meneptha the Second. We cannot, therefore, 
question his royal dignity. (Kenrick's Egypt, b. ii. p. 325.) Rosel- 
lini, Mon. Stor. iii. 2, calls him Uerri, or Remerri. " Remerri 
himself," he adds, " never reigned." Thus we have one king 
who " never reigned," and another who " never lay in the 
tomb prepared for him;" it might be possible, between these 
two to discover the right king of the Exodus. An excellent 
writer, who takes him for the 3rd Amenophis, says, " This 
Remerri was the first-born of Pharaoh, and, as was customary, 
the colleague of his father in the kingdom, the prince who fell 
a victim to the obstinacy of his sire, and perished prematurely 
on that dread night, when the destroyer passed through the 
land and smote the first-born of the Egyptians. The first- 
bom of Pharaoh, dying prematurely, had failed to prepare 



Names more certain than Dates. 55 

himself a tomb, and Amenophis having perished ere the em- CHAP. 

balmment of his son was completed, the latter was hastily : — - 

placed in the sepulchre his father had constructed for himself, 
while his subjects, little solicitous at such an awful crisis of trans- 
mitting his name to posterity, were content, in their despair, to 
record his titles on plaster, instead of undertaking the more 
tedious process of graving them on such material as might ensure 
perpetuity." Groves, Echoes of Egypt (Rivington, 1857), pp. 
177, 178. 

Sir Gardner Wilkinson, who began by regarding Thotmes III. 
(the 7th king of Dynasty XVIII. on the list of Josephus) as the 
monarch of the Exodus, (see Antiq. Eg., vol. i. pp. 77, 81,) 
gives afterwards the preference to the reign of Pthahmen, as sug- 
gested by the Duke of Northumberland, Pthahmen being the 3rd 
king of Dynasty XIX. (See Herod., App., b. ii. c. viii. § 24, 25.) 

And generally we may observe, that the later dates for the 
Exodus seem to be growing in favour with modern Egyptologers. 
They are not incompatible with the line of argument above taken. 
For in this case the authors differ as much in the dynasty 
as in the date. Thus, when Dr. Lepsius gives us, b.c, 1314, 
Osburn nearly the same, Bunsen, B.C. 1320, for the date of the 
Exodus, it is not that they take this for the proper date of 
Amenophis III., to whose reign we have referred this event 
in Dynasty XVIII. ; but they suppose it to have occurred 
somewhere in Dynasty XIX. "We can only say, that such an 
opinion is not to be lightly disregarded ; and that many of the 
foregoing arguments apply equally to such later period and date, 
— they would seem to exclude only the supposition of any much 
earlier one. According to some authors, the most certain thing in 
Egyptian chronology is the date of Thotmes III., of Dynasty 
XVIIL, for which, they say, we have definite astronomical data, 
pointing to B.C. 1445. And if this be so it will bring down Ame- 
nophis III. to a later date than has been assigned him above, and 
will a little displace all our other dates ; but to rectify this we 
should only have to assign a somewhat later date for the building 
of Memphis by Menes than that which we have taken (viz. 200 
years after the Flood), and date it nearer to the time assigned for 
the dispersion by the LXX chronology, viz. after the Flood 531. 
Adhuc sub judice ; — and it may be reserved for some future 

e 4 



56 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, discoveries among the monuments to throw fresh light on the 
• subject. 

From what has been stated we may at least be sure, that, at 
the time of the Exodus, the kingdom of Egypt was at the fall 
height of power and prosperity. Next to the Pyramid-period, it 
was the era of the greatest and most splendid national monuments, 
which still perpetuate the names of its most illustrious monarchs. 
The EAMSES, in particular, seem to have surpassed other 
monarchs in the magnificence of their tombs and palaces. It is 
not agreed what exact influence the irruption and long sway 
of the Arabian and Phoenician settlers, from whom the Shepherd 
Kings were descended, might have had on the religion of the 
country. Egyptian annalists would naturally fasten upon them 
the stigma of being disturbers of the national faith, and 
vilify them, as they did afterwards with the Israelites, by every 
false representation : but it is probable that they introduced 
purer and more primitive ideas of religion than those which had 
taken root in the national worship of Egypt, and which were 
zealously adopted and propagated by the native races of kings. 
These kings also amalgamated with their own office, that of 
being Supreme Pontiffs, and chief among the Priests of their 
religion. Their notions, however, were materialistic and idola- 
trous ; they taught the worship of the Sun l and heavenly bodies; 
they deified the powers of nature ; or else paid divine honours 
to departed kings, whom they embalmed and laid up in royal 
tombs, under the full belief that they were still alive, and, re- 
assuming the same bodily form, would hereafter bring back the 
fabled reigns of the demigods, and keep up a perpetual succession 
of kings to almost infinite ages. Between these and the more 
primitive ideas (kept alive by tradition in the East, and imported 
afresh by the Phoenician Shepherds), there appears to have been 
kept up a continual struggle. Fresh impetus would, doubtless, 
be given to the better side by the intercourse, not ambiguously 
recorded in Scripture, between Egypt and the Patriarch Abraham. 

1 Hence, under the vernacular name Ra, we so often find it in the 
etymology of Egyptian names, as in Pha-m-oh, ifo-niesis, Potiphar, 
abbreviated from Potipha-m, i.e. Priest of the Sun, &c. Compare 
Heliopolis, or On, and other names compounded with " on." 



General Condition of Egypt. 57 

There is much in the slight glimpses we have of the eonduct of CHAP. 

Abimelech, to show that there was at that time no special- ~ 

animosity, nor ill-feeling of any kind, towards the professors of a 
purer faith. As time went on, and during the long governorship 
of Joseph, the kindly feeling would even have improved. 
His eminent services to the king and country must have laid 
them under no inconsiderable obligations. The " Canal of 
Joseph," and frequent other monuments called by his name, 
testify to this day, the honour in which he was held. Territorial 
and agrarian dispositions made under his hand, seem to have 
worked a permanent improvement in the royal finances, and to 
have been one great cause which contributed to the consolidation 
of the empire, and the growing power of the kings. At last 
when a " king arose which knew not Joseph," we have the 
spectacle of a mighty kingdom, which had attained the summit 
of temporal power, but which eventually bowed down to a false 
and idolatrous religion. No time, therefore, could have been 
more seasonable for the display of a mightier Power still, and for 
the deliverance of the Chosen Seed from the hand of their 
oppressors. 



58 Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. III. 

The Life of Moses Second Part. 



l( On Sinai's top, in prayer and trance, 
Full forty nights and forty days, 
The Prophet watch'd for one dear glance 
Of Thee and of Thy ways. 

So, separate from the world, his breast 
Might duly take and strongly keep 

The print of Heaven, to be express'd 
Ere long on Sion's steep." 

Keble. 



chap. The Israelites are now speeding towards the Land 

'■ — of Promise. Let us direct our attention for a 

moment to the foremost figure in the group. He 
has had the experience of four score years of a 
chequered and anxious life. He is " meek above 
all the men which were upon the face of the 
earth ;" x but it is the meekness of real wisdom, 
acquired by the painful experience of many trials, 
which have convinced him of his own frailty and 
the comfort of the Divine grace. A great gulf 
literally separates Him from his earliest associa- 
tions. A wilderness lies before him, through which 

1 Num. xii. 3. 



Necessity of Divine Support. 59 

lie must struggle in the prosecution of the great char 

purpose with which he is commissioned from ■ — 

Heaven, — a wilderness where but of late he had 
spent a long season of obscurity and poverty. If 
the thought of the one might have elated, the 
recollections of the other were well fitted to humble 
him. He has, too, upon his shoulders the burden 
of a numerous and rapidly-increasing people. He 
has to lead them in war, to instruct them in peace, 
to wean them from the corrupt notions and cor- 
rupter habits of Egypt, and to train them for a 
new and prominent position among the nations of 
the earth. Shall he be left to the fertile resources 
of his own mind? to his human strength and wis- 
dom ? Shall he tend his people with no other help 
than what he needed when he kept his father's 
sheep in the wilderness? Or what shall be that 
meeting of his God, which was promised him on 
the selfsame mountain of Midian where he had 
tracked the humble sheepwalk? How full must 
have been his heart, as he mused on the mysterious 
promise ! How ardent his prayer, that it might 
carry with it some preternatural strength equal to 
his need ! 

For it was not long before the murmuring of 
the people broke out. The waters were bitter \ 
or the food was scanty; others said, "We remem- 
ber the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the 
cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the 

1 Ex. xv. 23; xvi. 4. 



60 • Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, onions, and the garlick;" 1 but now they were 

■ — dying with hunger and thirst, and they cast all the 

blame on their leader, and were " ready to stone 
him." 2 The smiting of the rock with the same 
miraculous rod which had been the instrument of 
performing so many wonders in Egypt, is permitted 
to relieve the thirst, and the manna falls in grateful 
plenty from heaven, to supply the place of food. 
These are some of the modes by which present relief 
was given. That they had often occasion, like other 
travellers, to dig wells for themselves, and to labour 
thus for a natural supply, seems implied in the very 
contrast drawn between their wilderness-condi- 
tion and the advantages to be enjoyed in Canaan. 
For there they were to find wells " digged, which 
they digged not" "vineyards and olives, which they 
planted not." There seems no sufficient ground for 
concluding that the waters from " the smitten rock " 
did more than " follow " them for that particular 
stage of their journey. And of the manna we know 
that the supply was renewed every morning ; " the 
children of Israel did eat manna forty years, till 
they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan." 3 
But there was one provision, which more than all 
bespoke the Divine presence with His chosen people, 
and with His servant Moses. As they performed 
the perilous passage of the Ked Sea, a cloud had 
been seen hovering over the host. Its beacon-light 

1 Num. xi. 5. 2 Ex. xvii. 4. 3 Ex. xvi. 35. 



III. 



The cloudy Pillar. 61 

had gone before them in the night ; it again removed chap. 
behind them and cast a shade upon their pursuers 
that they could not make way against it. In the 
morning it dazzled them with its brightness, and 
assisted in the rout and discomfiture of their 
hosts. 1 That same "pillar of a cloud" still ac- 
companied the triumphant armies of Israel. When 
it rested, the camp was to be stationary, — when it 
moved, it was the signal for marching 2 , — and where 
it led, was the direction of the march. By day it 
was in the form of a cloud, and a pillar of fire by 
night. When the tabernacle was erected, and the 
ark made, the same cloud rested upon them ; and 
it became further the oracle of the Most High, and 
Moses had resort to it for the purposes of his 
ministry 3 when he needed the Divine counsel and 
direction, and he received thence the visible tokens 
of Divine favour and support. 

Such preternatural assistances did not, however, 
supersede the necessity for more ordinary precau- 
tions. The care of all the people was growing too 
great a burden for their single ruler, when Jethro, his 
father-in-law, re-appears upon the scene, and meets 
him on his weary journey with the welcome greeting 
of a father and a friend. The scene is a touching 
one, where he restores the wife and children of 
Moses, which had been evidently under his charge 
from the day of his son's departure into Egypt ; 

1 Ex. xiv. 19—26. . 3 Ex. xvi. 10, 11 ; xxxiii. 9 — 

2 Numb. ix. 17—23. 11: Dent. xxxi. 15. 



62 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, and he further suggests the appointment of as- 
sistant officers, "rulers of thousands and rulers of 
hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens \ who 
might relieve him of a part of his daily charge, for 
he saw that " the people stood by him from morn- 
ing unto evening." " Thou wilt surely," said he, 
" wear away, and the people that is with thee : for 
this thing is too heavy for thee ; thou art not able 
to perform it thyself alone." 2 So they " took them 
wise men, and understanding, and known among 
their tribes," and when Moses had charged them 
to "judge righteously and not to respect persons in 
judgment," 3 they entered on their duties, " to judge 
the people at all seasons; the hard causes they 
brought unto Moses, but every small matter they 
judged themselves." 4 We see from this example 
that Moses was wise enough to value the timely 
counsel of a friend, — a disposition not found in those 
whose chief motive is a mere worldly ambition. 
We observe another illustration of this principle 
in his conduct to Hobab, a son of his father-in-law, 
whose experience in the hilly country and bleak 
passes of Midian, appeared to fit him for a service- 
able guide; and we find Moses endeavouring to 
dissuade him from returning home, inviting him 
to partake with him at once in the toils and the 

1 Ex. xyiii. 21. Elders, which we shall read of 

2 Ex. xviii.18. presently. These 'judges ' must 

3 Deut. i. 13, 16, 17. have amounted to many times 

4 Ex. xviii. 26. Not to be con- that number, 
founded with the council of Seventy 



Discomfiture of the Amalekites. 63 

honours of his enterprise, till he should reach the chap. 
Promised Land. 1 ~~ " 

The first trial in arms on this side the Ked Sea 
was not long in coming. It was occasioned by an 
unexpected attack of the Amalekites, and was 
remarkable on several accounts. It first intro- 
duces Joshua 2 to our notice, and it displays the 
justice of God in more severely punishing this 
people, as wilful offenders against the light afforded 
them, than other nations who knew not His will. 
The Amalekites were descendants of Esau, and 
must have known the promises made to Israel in 
the person of their common forefather Abraham, 
making over to them the countries to be conquered 
from the seven nations 3 of Canaan. The children 
of Esau had in like manner been allowed to appro- 
priate the country of the Horims and of Mount 
Seir 4 ; and was it for them to oppose the express 
will of the Almighty, now that Israel was about to 
enter on its inheritance ? Yet, contrary to the 
Divine command, and actuated, perhaps, by some 



1 Num. x. 29—33. than thou." Deut. vii. 1. But in 

2 See Ex. xvii. 9. Otherwise another place, Gen. xy. 19 — 21, 
called Oshea, and Jesus. Num. ten nations are enumerated. Al- 
xiii. 8 : "Of the tribe of Ephraim, lowing the Rephaims of Genesis 
Oshea, the son of Nun." See other to answer to the IIivtt.es of Deut., 
notices of Joshua, Ex. xxiv. 13 ; the remaining three nations, viz. 
xxxiii. 11 ; Num. xxvii. 18. the Kenites, Kenizzites, and Kad- 

3 " The Hittites, and the Gir- monites, lived on this side Jordan, 
gashites, and the Amorites, and and are on this account omitted 
the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, in the former list. 

and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, * Deut. ii. 5, 12, Gen. xxxvi. 8. 
seven nations greater and mightier 



Ill 



64 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, cowardly fear for their own possessions, or more 
likely by petty jealousy of their brethren, they 
made this unprovoked attack upon them, as they 
were just entering on their journey. They were 
not permitted to succeed, and it was specially en- 
joined upon Israel to make no peace with such 
a people till they had rooted out all remembrance 
of them from the land. The manner of the victory 
was destined further to illustrate the duty of perse- 
verance in faith, and of direct dependence upon God, 
even in the use of ordinary means. While Joshua is 
ordered to the fight, Moses is to stand on the height 
with the rod of God in his hand. So long as that 
rod is held up shall Israel prevail ; but Amalek, if 
the hand of Moses shall droop. 1 Supported by 
Aaron and Hur, the hands of Moses fail not, till 
the victory is complete on the side of Israel. 

Eecourse to arms was no more necessary till the 
last year of their circuitous route through the 
desert, when they had fairly entered on the cam- 
paign which was to give them possession of the 
land of Canaan. But we may say, by anticipation, 
that after a casual attack of Arad the Canaanite, 
who was soon defeated 2 , two kings on this side of 
Jordan eastward were the chief opponents. And 
it is remarkable that these also, like the Amalekites, 



1 The opinion is not to be dis- ingwas to that which is of the true 

regarded which makes this action essence of prayer, viz. faith and 

of Moses a simple act of prayer. a spirit of dependence upon God. 

Either way of taking it, the bless- » Num. xxi. 1 4. 



The seven guilty Nations of Canaan. G5 

were the assailants, and not the children of Israel, chap. 

in. 
They were, therefore, lawfully exposed to the. ■ — 

consequences of a war provoked by their own act ; 
and their kingdoms the lawful spoil of the con- 
queror. Nor were these in a similar situation 
with the seven guilty nations, whom Israel was to 
cast out of Canaan. So that the charge sometimes 
brought against this portion of Scripture history, 
as encouraging acts of indiscriminate slaughter, 
belongs not, strictly speaking, to the history of 
Moses at all. Yet, as Moses may be held re- 
sponsible for what was done at his command, and 
as he certainly commanded Joshua and the people 
under him, on approaching nearer to the Promised 
Land to carry on this series of conquests till the 
seven nations of the Hittites, and the Girgashites, 
and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the 
Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebu sites, were 
" smitten and utterly destroyed," l it may be pro- 
per to glance briefly at a few considerations which 
may appear to justify this proceeding. How- 
ever, then, we may lament the unhappy necessity 
for this apparently cruel and unsparing bloodshed, 
it cannot be forgotten that these nations had long 
been ripe for destruction. Since the days of Abra- 
ham 2 , i.e. for more than 400 years, sentence had 
been passed against them for their iniquities ; yet 
these were continually growing to a greater and 

1 D.eut. iii 21 ; vii. 1, 2. » Gen> xv< 19 . 2 i, 



66 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, greater pitch ; and the long-suffering of God waited 
-~ " for them in vain. They now sacrificed their own 
sons and daughters to Moloch; and their hands 
were stained deep with innocent blood. The cities 
of Sodom and Gomorrah had not been spared ; why- 
should it be different with those nations, who only 
lived to imitate their vices ? Israel herself was to 
expect no other treatment, if she gave way to the 
same evil courses ; u As the nations which the Lord 
destroyed before their face, so were they to perish, 
if they would not be obedient to the voice of the 
Lord their God." l The crimes of those nations 
were violations of the very laws of humanity, 
and such as to render them amenable to human 
justice. Much more, then, were they justly 
punishable by the all-righteous decrees of Heaven, 
and the mode of inflicting that punishment must 
be allowed matter of inferior consequence. We 
see how it pleased God to make the Israelites His 
instruments in executing the sentence; and we 
have no right to canvass the wisdom of the means, 
when we can see the justice, not to say the mercy 2 , 



1 Dent. viii. 20 ; Lev. xviii. with the rod of His wrath ; but I 
26, 28. am persuaded that all His punish- 

2 Bishop Watson, in his justly ments originate in His abhorrence 
admired Apology, remarks : " I am of sin, are calculated to lessen its 
fond of considering the goodness influence, and are proofs of His 
of God as the leading principle of goodness j inasmuch as it may not 
His conduct towards mankind,' be possible for Omnipotence it- 
of considering His justice as sub- self to communicate supreme hap- 
servient to His mercy. He pu- piness to the human race whilst 
nishes individuals and nations they continue servants of sin. 



The Law of dealing with the Inhabitants. 67 

of the end. This consideration must surely re- chap. 

move the apparent harshness of the act. • '— 

And further, it may be doubted whether violence 
was ever had recourse to, unprovoked by the enemy. 
On the contrary, it is maintained by many Jewish 
writers, that before an appeal to arms could be 
made, terms of peace were first offered ; and no 
violence attempted till peaceable measures had 
failed. We have, certainly, much to this purpose in 
the express injunctions of Moses (Deut. xx. 10-14), 
"first to proclaim peace to a city; and if it make 
answer of peace, then all the people shall be 
tributaries to thee, and shall serve thee. And if it 
make no peace with thee,... when the Lord hath 
delivered it into thy hands, thou shalt smite every 
male thereof with the sword." And we find an ex- 
ample in point, in the case of the Gibeonites, who, re- 
nouncing arms, attempted to gain by subtlety the 
most favourable terms ; and when a treaty had been 
thus made with them unawares, the terms of the 
treaty were strictly respected, and the lives of the 
people spared. 1 

The destruction of the Canaanites murder to the judge of the land 

exhibits to all nations, in all ages, in condemning criminals to death, 

a signal proof of God's displeasure as to condemn the conduct of 

against sin j it has been to others, Moses in executing the command 

and it is to ourselves, a benevolent of God." 

warning. The conduct of Moses * Josh. ix. 3, 21. And thus 

towards the Canaanites would the slow and gradual conquest 

have been open to severe animad- of the country was, in the 

version, had he acted by his own hands of Divine Providence, the 

authority alone: but it were as means of effecting a greater 

reasonable to attribute cruelty and good than would have resulted 

f 2 



68 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. We have now reached the time when Moses should 
' — ~ — receive a yet more formal and majestic installation 
into his office, when the dispensation committed to 
him should be expanded into larger proportions 
and more complete development, and the people be 
brought into nearer acquaintance with the God of 
their fathers, and under the more exact discipline 
of the law. This first year of their wanderings was 
therefore to be marked by an event more important 
in its consequences than any other, and from it 
were to date new trials, and a new state of proba- 
tion to all this people. It was no longer with 
physical privations alone, nor with the dreariness 
of a desert march that they were to contend. They 
were now to pass under the yoke of a stricter 
spiritual discipline ; it was to be proved 1 " what 
was in their hearts, whether they would keep God's 
commandments or no." Moses should be now the 
lawgiver, no less than the ruler and commander of 
the people. The promise that "he should serve 
God on this mountain" 2 was about to be verified, 
and the burning bush to be exchanged for the 
fiery mount. The Shepherd of Israel is summoned, 



from an immediate extermination. at the present day. Ex. xxiii. 29, 

For, (1.) it tried the obedience of 30 j Deut. vii. 22 : " The Loed 

Israel, Jndg. ii. 21 ; (2.) it prac- thy God will put out those nations 

tised them in arms, Judg\ iii. 1, 2 ; before thee by little and little ; 

(3.) it prevented the country being thou mayest not consume them at 

overrun with wild beasts — those once, lest the beasts of the field 

very scourges which are said to increase upon thee." 
infest the country about Galilee 1 Deut. viii. 2. 2 Ex. iii. 12. 



Proclamation of the Law on Mount Sinai. 69 

amidst majestic sounds of the trumpet and the chap. 



flashings of the thundercloud, to unearthly au- 
diences; and that nothing should be wanting of 
due publicity and notoriety, it is commanded that 
the people also within duly prescribed limits, should 
come near to witness and to hear the solemn words 
from Heaven. Moses alone was to be admitted 
within limits which none else might transgress. He 
passes to and fro on the ministry of God's word 
to the people, who, against the third day, are to 
purify themselves, and then approach the boundary 
prescribed. Moses himself is to pass beyond, and to 
minister before the God of Heaven. The grandeur 
of the scene can scarce find fitter description than in 
the words of the sacred narrative itself. " And 
Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to 
meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of 
the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a 
smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, 
and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a 
furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And 
when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and 
waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God an- 
swered him by a voice." l The law of the Ten Com- 
mandments is now promulged ; but no sooner is it 
done, than the people, who from the first had trem- 
bled in great alarm, retreat hastily from the awful 
scene. And now, that fitting witnesses might 
still remain to attest the realities of the Divine 

1 Ex. xix. 17, 18, 19. 

F 3 



70 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, revelation, taking with him Aaron, with his two 

in. . 
: — sons Nadab and Abihu, and seventy chosen elders 

of Israel \ Moses reascends the mount, and leaving 
Joshua, his special minister on the occasion, at a 
few paces distance, he prepares himself again to 
receive the Heavenly voice. A six-days' cloud en- 
compasses the mountain, and on the seventh day 2 
the glory of the Lord shines out "asa devouring 
fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the 

children of Israel And Moses was in the 

mount forty days and forty nights." The two 
tables of the law are here presented to him, 
a written with the finger of God " Himself; — by the 
dispensation, that is, of angelic ministries, or, as 
some suppose, by the second Divine Person in the 
blessed Trinity. The people, meanwhile, are to 
bring their matters before Aaron and Hur, till 
Moses should return to them. In his absence a 
fearful apostacy breaks out ; an idolatrous image 
is set up, and divine honours paid to the likeness 
of a calf, the very animal set apart for sacrifice. 
This substitution of the heathen usages of Egypt 
for the pure worship of Jehovah, into which even 

1 Ex. xxiv. 1, 9, 13. The ap- says Bp. Patrick, (l that these 

pointment of these Seventy Elders seventy persons made a higher 

is regarded as the first origin of court than any of those constituted 

the Jewish Sanhedrim. In Num. by the advice of Jethro, and after- 

xi. 16 — 25, we have the account wards established in every city." 

of their first appointment. They See Ex. xviii. 12 — 27 j Deut. 

were afterwards to merge in the xvi. 18. 

great central court at Jerusalem, 2 Ex. xxiv. 15 — 18. 
Deut. xvii. 9 — 11. " It is plain," 



The People worship a Golden Calf. 71 

Aaron fell, finds no apologist in Moses. Filled with chap. 



grief and consternation, as the sound of the music 
and dancing and all the revelry of the idol feast 
fell upon his ear, he rushes from the mount, dashes 
the two tables of the covenant to the ground, and 
calls upon the congregation of Israel to give up the 
heads of the rebellion to the hands of justice. The 
Levites come forward and undertake the unwel- 
come duty of executing immediate vengeance upon 
no less than 3,000 of the chief offenders. It may 
be asked, why did Aaron escape ? Why did he 
escape again on the occasion of himself and Miriam 
affecting equality with Moses, though Miriam was 
afflicted with leprosy in punishment for her fault ? 
The Sacred history very clearly explains it in the 
latter case ; and we have only to apply the same prin- 
ciple in the former. We shall then perceive that it- 
was not from undue partiality, nor yet from regard 
to the sanctity of his office, that Aaron gained this 
exemption ; but because of his prompt and sincere 
repentance, finding vent in the earnest cry, " I 
beseech thee lay not the sin upon us, wherein we 
have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned." l 
A similar defection of the people, when seduced, 
at the instigation of the wicked prophet Balaam, 
by the Moabitish women, we may just mention here ; 
but it forms no part of our purpose to dwell 
minutely on the particulars of Balaam's history, 

1 Numb. xii. 11. 
f 4 



72 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, except so far as it illustrates the deep infection 

'- — which still rested on the people, from their old 

idolatrous notions in Egypt, and shows the extreme 
difficulty of weaning them from their corrupt 
habits and ideas. We must not omit to observe — 
as both instances may well remind us to do — upon 
the remarkable and disinterested veracity of the 
Mosaic account. Josephus, in this part of his 
history, quite conceals the infirmity of Aaron, in 
being carried away by the popular idolatry in 
worshipping the golden calf ; whereas Moses relates 
it with all its aggravations, and with no unworthy 
respect to the person of his own brother Aaron. 
And we find, generally, the same frankness and 
truth-telling disposition, marking every portion 
of his writings. He does, what no common writer, 
still less an impostor would do, — he freely owns 
the truth, though at the expense of his own 
reputation ; and often suppresses the more favour- 
able side, where it might tend to minister to 
personal exaltation. We hear nothing from himself 
of those various accomplishments which universal 
testimony ascribes to him, — nothing of the great 
sacrifice it must have cost him to renounce all the 
attractions of the court of Egypt, and to choose 
boldly the rough path of duty ; but when it comes 
to matters of a less flattering nature, he tells us 
candidly, how he was tempted to err in the hastiness 
of his speech, and in his backwardness to accept 
the charge laid upon him; and how difficult he 



Moses intercedes for them, 73 

found it to keep that charge, and to bring the chap. 

people to any due degree of subordination and ■ — 

obedience to the will of God. 

But what had been passing on the Mount during 
those forty days, when Moses was absent there? 
Besides the two tables of the Law, he had received 
exact directions for the framework of the tabernacle, 
the ark, and all the holy furniture, — the rules for 
the order of the priesthood, for the sacrifices and 
ceremonies of divine worship. The names of the 
artists, Bezaleel and Aholiab, were expressly revealed 
to him; but the patterns were to be taken from 
"heavenly things," displayed to him, doubtless, in 
mystic vision. From a passage in Deuteronomy, 
we may infer, that acts of intercession and prayer 
formed part of his employment on that sacred 
height. At least it was so, on the second occasion 
that he was called to that high communion with 
his Maker. After the sin of the people in the 
worship of the golden calf, we "find him thus 
exercising his intercessory office. A second time 
he goes up into the Mount, and, rapt in holy vision 
for another forty days, he pleads with God in behalf 
of the guilty congregation. Two new Tables of 
the Law are granted to him, to replace those which 
in the fury of his zeal for God, he had broken in 
pieces on his former descent from the Mount. l 
" I fell down," says he, u before the Lord, as at the 

1 Ex. xxxiv. 1 — 4, 28 j Deut. x. 1— 4. 



74 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, first — for forty days and forty nights : I did neither 

— eat bread nor drink water, because of all your sins 

which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of 
the Lord, to provoke Him to anger." 1 And the 
Lord renewed to him that remarkable proclamation 
of Himself— as " The LORD, the LORD GOD, 
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant 
in goodness and truth : keeping mercy for thousands, 
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and 
that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the 
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon 
the children's children, unto the third and fourth 
generation." 2 On the expiration of this second 
period, and the renewal of God's covenant with 
his people, we read that, when Moses came down 
from Mount Sinai, " the skin of his face shone " 
with the reflected glory of the Divine presence ; 
and "a vail was put on his face," 3 that the 
people might be able to come near and address 
him. 

In less than six months, the tabernacle, and all 
its furniture and sacred vessels, were completed. 
The time of the passover was again come round, 
and all seemed ready for the direct march to 
Canaan. On the second month of their second 
year's journey they are bid to set forward; and on 
reaching Kadesh Barnea, they send forward twelve 
men, a man from each tribe, to explore the land on 
which they hoped to enter. A new trial here awaits 

1 Deut. ix. 18, 25. 3 Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. 3 Ex. xxxiv. 29—35. 



Faintheartedness of the Spies. 75 

Moses. The spies — though they returned with chap. 

that famous cluster of grapes which required two : — ■ 

men to carry it — brought no good report of the 
land. They represented it as full of cities, high, 
and walled up to heaven, and the inhabitants of 
warlike air and gigantic stature, before whom their 
hearts had sunk within them, and " they were in 
their own sight as grasshoppers." Joshua and 
Caleb alone, of all the spies, stood up for an imme- 
diate and courageous advance, in the name and in 
the strength of the Lord of Hosts. The advice of 
these faithful men was however in vain; and a 
retreat was determined on, which cost them the 
forty years' wandering in the wilderness which now 
ensued. l We have but the accounts of the first 
and last of these years, if we except the mere 
mention of some principal stages in the thirty- third 
chapter of Numbers. 2 No sooner had the Law 
been given, than some restless spirits ventured to 
innovate on some of what they regarded its super- 
fluous ceremonies. Nadab and Abihu, the favoured 
sons of Aaron, who had been with Moses in the 
Mount, thus attempted to offer incense with strange 
fire on the altar; but for their offence "there went 
out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they 
died before the Lord." 3 The like waywardness in 
Aaron and Miriam, in claiming equality with Moses, 
has been already mentioned, and was visited with 
proportionate severity. Punishment of death was 

1 Num. xiv. 33 ; 34. 3 See also Deut. x. 6. 3 Lev. x. 1, 2. 



76 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, inflicted on a man who even picked up sticks on 

! — the Sabbath to burn. The most daring rebellion 

was that of Korah, a Levite, and his family, with 
Dathan, Abiram, and On, descendants of Keuben 
the first-born. These persuaded themselves that 
the distinctions of office, prescribed by the law, 
were unjust assumptions of Moses and Aaron, 
and they rose up against them, and drew off a 
large number of the congregation. The contest 
was decided by a direct appeal to Heaven : and 
on presenting themselves at the door of the 
Tabernacle to offer incense, as the priests alone 
might do, the impious band of Korah and their 
associates were scorched with fire from Heaven, 
while the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan 
and Abiram and all the unruly multitude who 
stood around their tents. Thus God avenged His 
own ordinances and vindicated the authority of His 
servant Moses. In sign of the special authority 
committed to the chosen High Priest, the rod of 
Aaron budded and blossomed in the tabernacle, 
those which belonged to the other heads of families 
in Israel remaining barren as before. 

We may imagine, so meek as Moses was, with 
what pain he must have witnessed the just con- 
demnation of these various offenders. Indeed, in 
some instances, the punishment may almost seem 
to have exceeded a due proportion to the offence. 
But in the beginning of institutions, it is necessary 
to exercise due and salutary discipline ; and laws, 



Patriotism of Moses. 77 

which may afterwards admit of reasonable relaxa- char 

tion, must then be enforced with rigour. It is not : — "- 

every lie which is punished with the same severity 
as in the instance of Ananias and Sapphira, at a 
time when it was deemed peculiarly needful that 
" fear should come upon the infant churches." 
Theirs, however, was a moral and deadly sin; 
while the Israelites perished for violations of mere 
outward and ceremonial observances. There cannot 
be a doubt that Moses, in all these transactions, looked 
far beyond himself or any private ends. Had he 
paid regard to these, opportunities were not wanting 
to have promoted them at the expence of others. 
But this was never in his thoughts. He looked to 
the duties of his office, and to nothing else. When 
he witnessed the temporal sufferings which others, 
by their disobedience, brought down upon their 
own head, we may imagine him to have taken 
comfort in the reflection, that the temporal was not 
necessarily to be followed by eternal death ; but 
that rather the justice of God might be satisfied in 
the present chastisement, and not extend to the 
final condemnation of the sinners in the world to 
come. The whole secret of his conduct was, in a 
word, the submission of himself to the known and 
revealed will of God. When exposed to contradic- 
tions and reproach, the answer was ever ready on 
his lips — "Who are we that ye murmur against 
us? your murmurings are against the Lord." 1 

1 Ex. xvi. 7; Num. xvi. 11, and comp. Ex. iii. 11 ■ iy. 10. 



78 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. His conduct was thus marked with as much of 

: — meekness throughout, as of faithfulness to the 

commands of God. 

He never loved his countrymen the less, because 
he feared and loved God the more. What can 
equal that noble burst of affection and ardent 
patriotism, when, in the midst of complaining that 
the burden of so great a multitude was too much 
for his single strength to bear (for that now " they 
were as the stars of heaven for multitude"), he thus 
apostrophises the same people, and says, " The Lord 
God of your fathers make you a thousand times so 
many more as ye are, and bless you, as He hath 
promised you ! " 1 What disinterestedness, when, 
the Almighty having threatened to cut off and dis- 
inherit the whole people of Israel, and to make of 
Moses " a greater and mightier nation than they," — 
the dazzling offer had no other effect upon him 
than to drive the holy Prophet to his knees, and to 
extort anew the intercessory prayer ever ready on 
his lips, u Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity 
of this people according unto the greatness of 
Thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, 
from Egypt even until now !" 2 We might look 
in vain in heathen story for instances of the 
like absence of personal ambition and of private 
aims of aggrandisement, in stations of the same 
eminence and authority. The ardent love of others, 
the spirit of self-sacrifice, which had settled down, 

1 Dent. i. 10, 11. 2 Num. xiv. 12, 19. 



His Disinterestedness and Public Spirit. 79 

in Moses, into a constant rule of life, seems a gift chap. 

. in. 
peculiar to the chosen servants of the Most High. — 

The Scriptures supply another memorable instance 
in Christian times, — when St. Paul, a prisoner in 
chains, and pleading before Agrippa, in reply to the 
half-confession extorted from the King, ("almost 
thou persuadest me to be a Christian,") bursts out 
into that generous and noble strain, " I would to 
God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me 
this day, were both almost, and altogether such as 
I am, except these bonds." l 

We must notice in one stage of their pilgrimage, 
the plague of serpents, of whose deadly bite a great 
multitude of the Israelites perished 2 , when it pleased 
God to ordain a miraculous cure, the tradition of 
which has undoubtedly left its trace in many reli- 
gious usages amongst the nations of the earth. 3 The 
peculiar import of the brazen serpent, which was 
on this occasion commanded to be made and raised 
up on a pole or ensign, that the Israelites looking 
towards it might receive a miraculous cure, we 
reserve for another occasion. 4 But to show how 
little it was intended as a mere natural charm, or 
to give countenance to the superstitious worship of 
outward signs, this very serpent of brass, after 



1 Acts, xxvi. 28, 29. this event. — Kitto, note on Num. 

2 Num. xxi. 8 ; 9; John, iii. 14. xxi. 9. 

3 Thus the worship of iEscu- 4 The reader is referred to the 
lapius, the god of physic, under longer note appended to this 
the form of a serpent, may have chapter. 

been derived from a tradition of 



80 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, being religiously kept among the Israelites for 
'■ — many ages, when it began to be abused to super- 
stitious uses, was purposely destroyed by express 
command of God, in the reign of King Hezekiah. 1 
The author of the Book of Wisdom has well pointed 
out the true virtue of the symbol, where he says, 
" He that turned himself towards it was not healed 
by the thing which he saw, but by Thee who art 
the Saviour of all." 2 

As the forty years' journey in the wilderness 
drew to an end, Moses redoubled his zeal and 
earnest care for the instruction and improvement 
of the people. He renews the covenant made with 
them at Horeb 3 , and pledges them, on their arrival 
in Canaan, to engrave it on pillars or tablets of 
stone to be erected on Mount Ebal. 4 Clearing 
himself of all danger of mistake, he declares to 
them in emphatic terms, u I call heaven and earth 
to record this day against you, that I have set 
before you life and death, blessing and cursing : 
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed 
may live." 5 The generation was now fast dying 
out, to whom it had been threatened that they 
should not set foot in the promised land, because 
of their unbelief in being swayed by the ill report 
of the spies. The justice of this sentence we are not 
competent to call in question. It may, however, 
fairly and justly be demanded, if such was the sad 

1 2 Kings, xviii. 4. 2 Wisd. xvi. 7. 3 Dent. xxix. xxx. 

4 Dent, xxvii. 1—8. 6 Deut. xxx. 19. 



The System tried by its Fruits. 81 

condition of many for whom better things might chap. 

have been hoped, where are we to look for the : — 

fruits of this great mission of Moses ? The merits, 
it may be insisted, of any plan of government, or 
the abilities of the governor, may fairly be esti- 
mated by the amount of good produced, and by the 
success attending his measures. Where then was 
the good of this wilderness discipline ? and what 
success had followed the past efforts of Moses? 
There can be no doubt, that in the knowledge of 
the true God, as distinct from the inventions of 
human superstition, a great progress had been 
made. " The great work which the Lord did upon 
the Egyptians/ 7 x had been enough to display the 
terrors of His arm. But in the wilderness they 
had learnt further His tender care for his people, 
how " He bare them as a man doth bear his son, in 
all the way that they went," 2 and thus they had 
been taught the great duty and privilege of obe- 
dience, founded on love. And though many of 
them had failed to manifest that improvement 
under the various trials and dispensations ap- 
pointed them, which might have been desired, there 
were still some faithful spirits who had realised the 
benefits intended. The old generation was dying 
out ; but there were left those of younger years, 
who had really profited by the lessons they had re- 
ceived. At the age of twenty, men are not ill quali- 

1 Ex. xiv. 31. 2 Dent. i. 33. 



82 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. fied. to be wrought upon, by what they see and hear, 
to pay increasing heed to the lessons of Providence, 
and to turn to account the ripening experiences of 
life. Such must now have had the additional 
experience of another forty years, — time enough, 
one may be sure, to shake off the superstitious 
notions they had imbibed in Egypt, and to confirm 
themselves in the knowledge and obedience of the 
one true God of their fathers. To such, the many 
dispensations by which God had tried them, " to 
humble them and to prove them, to know what 
was in their hearts, whether they would keep his 
commandments or no," 1 were not in vain ; but 
they had effectually acquired the character that 
would fit them to take part with Joshua, in form- 
ing the first nucleus of the infant theocracy within 
the borders of the Holy Land. 

Another thing which marks this period, is the 
fuller mention -which is made to the Israelites of 
the natural beauties and advantages of the country 
before them : as though the nearer thoughts of it 
animated the speaker to dwell more upon this 
theme, than he had hitherto done on the dreary 
march through the wilderness. He no longer fears 
to contrast the fertile plains of Canaan with the 
barren rocks of Par an. He dwells with rapture on 
the good land of promise — as " a land of brooks 
of water, of fountains and depths, that spring out 
of valleys and hills ; — a land of wheat, and barley, 

1 Deut, viii. 2. 



Moses speaks " unadvisedly " and is punished. 8 

and vines, and figtrees, and pomegranates ; a land chap 

of oil-olive and honey." 1 Yet to these happier - 

scenes, neither Aaron, nor himself, in their own 
persons, are ever destined to arrive. Both are 
to be monuments of the impartiality of Divine 
justice, because of their offences; and are to forfeit 
the fondly hoped privilege of admission to the 
Promised Land. The exact nature of the offence of 
Moses may admit of some doubt ; but, whatever it 
was, Aaron participated in it 2 ; and we have the 
authority of the Psalmist for saying, that "he 
spake unadvisedly with his lips." 2 According to 
a tradition of the Rabbis, the act consisted in the 
opprobrious appellation by which he had addressed 
his countrymen, when he struck the rock to give 
them water. We shall see reason for regarding it 
in a somewhat different light. But it may be well 
to give the passage at full length. The people 
having for the second time given vent to some 
vehement expression of complaint, on occasion of 
their wanting water, Moses, we read, receives 
commandment, saying, " Take the rod, and gather 
thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy 
brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their 
eyes ; and it shall give forth his water, and thou 
shalt bring to them water out of the rock. And 
Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as He 
commanded him.... And Moses and Aaron gathered 

1 Deut. viii. 7, 8. 2 Ps. cvi. 33. 

g 2 



84 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, the congregation together before the rock, and he 

'■ — said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we 

fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses 
lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the 
rock twice ; and the water came out abundantly, 
and the congregation drank thereof, and their 
beasts also." l Such were the exact circumstances 
of the case. But what was the charge founded 
upon them? We find it in chapter xxxii. verse 51 : 
— " Because ye trespassed against Me among the 
children of Israel, at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh ; 
because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the 
children of Israel." From which it would appear, 
that this act of Moses in twice smiting the rock, 
was an overlooking of the express word of the 
Divine command, in the indulgence of a hasty and 
impatient temper, or of some feeling of personal 
vanity. It was a mistaken idea of improving 
on the prescribed methods of God, — as if it was 
either the word of man, the blow, or the twice 
repeating 2 of the blow, that would produce the 
effect, — and not rather the invisible power of God, 
and His blessing on the faithful performance of His 
word. That God, in His infinite wisdom, had some 
further design 3 in not permitting the rock to be 



1 Num. xx. 8 — 12. 3 That class of precepts which 

9 " Twice," as it might have is called positive, as not founded 

seemed, in appropriate significa- on any obvious principles of reason 

tion of the twice-repeated com- and morality, must often have 

plaining of the people. been a stumbling-block to the 



Last Measures of Moses. 85 

struck as on a former occasion, we doubt not; and chap. 

. in. 

especially this, that it might better symbolise the 

rock's great Antitype, who was to suffer once, and 
once only, under the stroke of the law, for the sins 
of the world. 

Aaron dies first, on Mount Hor, and was buried. 
With Moses, there is a larger interval of warning 
and preparation, though we know not exactly how 
long. In an early chapter of Deuteronomy, he 
mentions his approaching end, but reverts to it no 
more till the end of the book. As he contemplated 
his own removal, he seems to have made it his first 
care to provide a faithful successor, who might 
tend the flock which he was about to quit, and lead 
them safely forward to the consummation of their 
hopes. Committing this desire of his heart in 
prayer to God, he is directed to make choice of 
Joshua, whom he is to bring to the Holy Taber- 
nacle, — the seat of the Divine presence, — and there 
to induct him into his office. To this kindly 
forethought for his people, Moses, under the Divine 
direction, shortly adds another labour of love, in 
the composition of that beautiful song, which, 
though it must necessarily lose something of the 
charm of its poetic dress and melody to the modern 
reader, is still full of the most sublime and heart- 
stirring strains, and was eminently calculated then, 

faith of men under the Jewish their application to the times of 
dispensation. It is comparatively Messiah, 
easy now to look back and trace 

G 3 



86 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, by its mention of so many points in their national 

' — history, to make a deep and abiding impression on 

the minds of the Israelitish people. What sublime 
and impressive passages are these ! — " He found 
him in a desert land, and in the waste howling 
wilderness ; He surrounded him, He instructed 
him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As 
an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her 
young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, 
beareth them on her wings ; so the Lord alone did 
lead him, and there was no strange god with him." 
(Deut. xxxii. 10-12.) " See now, that it is I, even 
I, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make 
alive ; I wound, and. I heal ; neither is there any that 
can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my 
hand to heaven, — I say, I live for ever. If I whet 
the lightning of my sword, and mine hand take 
hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine 
adversaries, and will repay them that hate me." 
(Deut. xxxii. 39-42.) 

Such are the last preparations before the great 
Lawgiver must quit his charge. And now he, too, 
must obey his summons from the God of the spirits 
of all flesh. " Get thee up into this mountain, and 
die, and be gathered unto thy people." Such is the 
word of God to him on the selfsame day, " that he 
had rehearsed all the words" of that last song in 
the ears of all the congregation. How often of old 
had he paced the mountain-top, seeking there — 
in the retirement of Nature's sanctuary, half-lifted 



His latter End. 87 

as it were to heaven, or in immediate intercourse chap. 

. . . in. 

with Nature's God — rest to his weary spirit, re- - — : — 

cruited strength for fresh labours, counsel and 
direction for his future path ! Shall his God for- 
sake him at the last? Shall there be no more 
blessing for him on the mountain -top ? Yes ! 
there again God meets him, and appears to him. 
" His eye is not dim, nor his natural force abated," 
but, apart from this natural vigour, God strengthens 
him by His Spirit. By a miraculous extent of view 
there is spread out before him the whole extent of 
Canaan. Nor is the vision bounded there ; — but as 
he looks abroad from Mount Nebo, — across the inter- 
vening stream of Jordan and the plains of Moab, to 
the valley of Jericho, to Kedron, and to Hebron, and 
the brook of Siloah on the south, — and as he stretches 
his view northward to the plains of Sharon, and 
over Mount Carmel to the more distant Lebanon and 
the everlasting hills; so, doubtless, to the eye of 
his faith was disclosed that further stage of things, 
to which Jerusalem itself, and her temple, and all 
the scenes of Palestine were but the curtain and 
the veil. And thus forecasting the kingdom of the 
Messiah and the better days to come, and the rest 
that remaineth for the people of God, this great 
Prophet dies and resigns his spirit to Him who 
gave it. We read of no instructions being given 
by him, as once by Joseph, to take up his bones 
and bury them in the land of his fathers. Nor 
were other tokens wanting to show that his body 

G 4 



88 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, was designedly to be left in an unknown place, lest 
'- — in after ages it should be made the object of adora- 
tion 1 among a people predisposed to idolatry by 
what they had seen practised in Egypt. In some 
unknown spot it was deposited, and awaits the 
resurrection of the just. Josephus speaks of " his 
body not being found, and disappearing." 2 Accord- 
ing to a current tradition of the Jews, " he ascended 
and ministered to God in the heavens." The scene 
of the Transfiguration related by the first three 
Evangelists, where he appears in company with 
Elias, has inclined many to adopt a very similar 
idea of his translation to heaven, after the manner 
of that other Prophet. But, as the Scripture ac- 
count makes mention of his death and burial, and 
as the Apostle Jude speaks of a contest in the 
spiritual world over the " body of Moses," we may 
rather believe that he was associated with Elias, on 
the occasion referred to, in vision, not in reality ; or 



1 This very reason we have in naan, he did not desire to be car- 
R. Levi Ben Gershom. u Future ried thither to be buried with his 
generations/' says he, "might per- ancestors, as Joseph did ; because 
haps have made a god of him, his interment in that country 
because of the fame of his mi- might have proved of dangerous 
racles ; for do we not see how consequence, if, in their distress, 
some of the Israelites erred in the children of Israel should have 
the brazen serpent which Moses rim to his sepulchre, and begged 
made? And what then would of him to pray for them, whose 
they not have done, had they but prayers and intercession in their, 
known where his remains were behalf they had found in his life- 
laid?" "For this reason, very time so veiy prevalent." — Patrick 
likely, it was that, how much so- on Deut. xxxiv. 6. 
ever Moses was in love with Ca- 2 Antiq., lib. iv. c. viii* 



Place of Sepulture concealed. 89 

else that his real body was raised purposely for that chap. 

occasion. And we cannot do better than adhere : — 

to the express language of the sacred narrative, 
" So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in 
the land of Moab, according to the word of the 
Lord. And He buried him" (by the hand of angels, 
as it would appear from Jude) " in a valley in the 
land of Moab, over against Beth-peor ; but no man 
knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." 1 We 
have here sought to lay another stone to his 
memory, and to bring out the strong features of 
his character, and his claims to be considered the 
inspired Prophet of Heaven. We have regarded 
him, perhaps, a little too exclusively, in his great 
public capacity as Leader and Governor of Israel, — 
passing over in comparative silence the interior, as 
it were, of his life and manners, — and have said 
nothing of his symbolical office as typifying the fu- 
ture Deliverer of the world, that " greater Prophet 
which was yet to be raised up in Israel like unto 
him," and to whom they should "hearken;" 2 but, if 
they refused, " every soul which will not hear him, 
was to be destroyed from among the people." For, 
however worthy of notice in themselves these points 
may be (and most deserving of attention they are), 
it seemed better to keep them separate from the 
thread of the narrative, and to confine ourselves to 
those principal circumstances of his life, on which 

. * Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6. sion, "hear Him," — Matt. xvii. 

2 Compare the parallel expres- 5 j Mark, ix. 7 ; Luke, ix. 35. 



90 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, after all the others must depend. For the same 
: reason we must leave to others the discussion of 
the spirit and temper of those laws l which were 
delivered by him, and which were the great founda- 
tion, not of the Jewish code alone, but also* as is 
probable, of that of every other civilised nation in 
the world. We subjoin a brief mention of the 
more striking particulars, in which the history of 
Moses was typical of the great Messiah that was 
to come into the world. 



Moses, a type of Christ. — Interesting as is the life of the great 
Jewish Lawgiver, regarding him only as we have hitherto done, 
in his individual capacity, and as the chosen leader of Israel ; it 
acquires additional interest when we consider him, farther, as the 
forerunner of a better dispensation to come. Any view of his 
character must be incomplete, which omits to regard him in this 
ulterior light. If he was a shining light to the men of that gene- 
ration, — if he displayed abilities and virtues of the highest order, 
and exhibited the most exemplary fidelity in his office, — with all 
these excellencies was combined the still higher office of repre- 
senting, however faintly, a greater Prophet to come ; and whose 
more exceeding glory should one day scatter the clouds of Sinai, 
before the brightness of His appearing. We had before occasion 
to remark on the peculiarly Catholic nature, in many instances, of 
the scenes and transactions in which Moses took part ; and how 
the desert, and the wandering, and the Eed Sea, and the pillar of 
the cloud, the manna and the rock, and many such things, have 
their counterpart in the blessings and the realities of the Christian 
covenant. We might have added to the catalogue many rites 



1 On the purity and excellence tateuch, Pt. II. and Pt. III. Lect. 

of the Mosaic Law, see especially iii.; Wazhweton, Divine Legation of 

Euseb. Prcep. Evang. lib. vii. — ix. Moses ; Hamilton, On the Penta- 

andxiv.xv.; Graves, On the Pen- teuch; Currey, Hulsean Lectures. 



Typical Character of Moses 91 

and ceremonies of the law, and institutions of the temple service. CHAP. 

But the analogy between any of these, and the benefits which, as '- — 

Christians, we have now received, is not more striking than that 
which subsists between the personal office and character of Moses 
himself, and the person of Him that was to come. 

1. — Take him first in the character of a, Prophet. In the 
terms which accompanied the giving of the law, — in the near 
communion which he was permitted to hold with Heaven, while 
every other witness of the sight shrunk back with horror and 
alarm, — in the continuance of that high communion, till his 
very countenance was radiant with the heavenly glory, — in 'the 
wonders which made him " very great in the land of Egypt, in 
the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people " 
( Exod. xi. 3), — in the comprehensive yet distinctive character 
of that celebrated code, which, in the name of the Almighty, he 
was commissioned to promulgate from Mount Sinai ; — in all these 
singular prerogatives, where was ever the Prophet that might 
compare with Moses ? — a Prophet, as the Scriptures express it, 
" whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the won- 
ders which the Lord sent him to do to Pharaoh and to all his land. 
And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror, which 
Moses showed in the sight of all Israel." (Deut. xxxiv. 10 — 12.) 
But there yet remains an important feature of his prophetic office, 
and one in which he still more closely resembles Christ, viz., 
the power of foretelling future events. He not only describes 
beforehand the Promised Land with all the vividness and particu- 
larity of one who had actually seen and lived in it ; but he marks 
out the future destiny of its old inhabitants, and the still more 
varied destinies of the people who were about to dispossess them, 
and to occupy the land in their stead. In a subsequent chapter we 
shall be able to point out instances of that most singular discern- 
ment, by which he was permitted to penetrate into the future 
settlement of nations, and mark the course and direction of civili- 
sation and religion. Add to this, the direct prophecies of the 
Messiah, with which his writings abound. These, too, will be 
found noticed at some length in the last-named chapter. They 
none of them exceed in distinctness and importance that cele- 
brated one in Deut. xviii. 15 — 18 : "A Prophet will the Lord 
thy God raise up unto thee of thy brethren, like unto me : unto 



02 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, him shall ye hearken." And accordingly we find this prophecy 
n1, very frequently urged in later times by the Apostles, as in Acts 
iii. 22, 23; vii. 37. 

2 The office of Lawgiver was another plain characteristic of 

Moses ; and so it was of Christ. The sermon on the mount is 
enough to show the authority which He took upon Him to give 
laws to His people. A learned writer has well remarked : " Search 
the whole range of inspired Prophets ; view that long line of emi- 
nent men, distinguished by various gifts of inspiration, having 
diversities of gifts from the same Holy Spirit ; some endued with 
the power of working miracles, healing the sick, and raising the 
dead ; some enabled, with the glance of their mental vision, to 
pierce the gloom of futurity, and depict with the boldest, yet most 
accurate imagery, events yet distant : seek out Joshua, the cho- 
sen captain of Israel ; Samuel, called to consecrate her kings ; 
David, himself the anointed of the Lord ; Elijah, a man of like 
passions with ourselves, but gifted with Divine wisdom in his 
life, and distinguished in his death, above the sons of men ; and 
Elisha, upon whom the spirit of Elijah rested ; contemplate those 
twelve holy men who declared all the will of the Lord, until 
vision and prophecy were sealed up : and behold all these enfor- 
cing, with all the authority of their office, and in the name of the 
Most High God, the sanctions of the Mosaic law, and often giving 
intimations of some greater lawgiver, who should be raised up ; 
yet in no one instance themselves introducing any new law. 
Behold the world left for a series of years in darkness, uncheered 
by one ray of inspiration, until at length the gospel day begins 
to dawn ; the Spirit begins to be poured out upon all flesh ; the 
prophetic dreams, the vision, and the superhuman voice, are 
once more displayed among the people of Israel ; the messenger 
comes in the wilderness, to prepare the way of the Lord ; and 
then the long-predicted, and typified, and expected Prophet ap- 
pears, like unto Moses in many respects, and delivering laws, as 
Moses did, with authority and power." — Chevallier, Hulsean 
Lectures. Camb. 1826. 

3, 4. — As a Priest and as a King Moses was, further, a fit re- 
presentative of Christ : if not in the same degree as in his other 
offices of lawgiver and prophet, yet sufficiently so to ensure 
that which is more striking than any mere single point of re- 



His Office, as a Mediator. 93 

semblance, viz., the wonderful combination of characters, which CHAP. 

never before or since met in the same individual. Moses was t±±: 

not himself a priest; yet, receiving his appointment anterior to 
Aaron, he had to perform the priestly office on more than one 
occasion, as the patriarchs had done before him. On one of 
these occasions, he so exactly typified Christ, that the very words 
which he was directed to employ were engrafted upon the first 
institution of the most solemn ordinance of the Christian Church. 
For "he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience 
of the people ; and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we 
do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled 
it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which 
the Lord hath made with you, concerning all these words " 
(Exod. xxiv. 7, 8) ; recalling to mind the very similar expression 
in the Gospels, — " He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave 
it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the 
New Testament" (i. e. Covenant), "which is shed for many, for the 
remission of sins" (Matt. xxvi. 27, 28). Whether the passage, 
Deut. xxxiii. 5, " he was king in Jeshurun," may be referable 
to Moses, or whether Jehovah Himself be intended, it is clear that 
Moses was in fact a king, as much as if he had been expressly 
called by that name. The kings of later times were themselves but 
instruments under God to execute His commands, as supreme 
Governor of the people, manifesting that government by outward 
and visible tokens : and Moses in this light was not inferior to 
them. In the substance of his office, he precisely resembled 
them; — and therefore, both as priest and king, we may view 
him as typifying and preparing the way for the future Re- 
deemer, no less than as a prophet he resembled Him in the 
plenitude of the gifts by which he was distinguished. 

5. — We pass to the last great point of resemblance — one evidently 
in the mind of the Apostle, when he speaks of the law having 
been " ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator" (Gal. iii. 
19), and one most strictly in harmony with the evangelical dis- 
pensation. How often we may observe him in the exercise of 
this mediatorial character ! When the people were in great 
terror and consternation before the awful thunders of Sinai, 
amid the " blackness, and darkness, and tempest," — when they 
were unable to bear so terrible a sight, standing though they 



94 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, might within the prescribed limits of the Mount, — Moses alone 
jjjjk was able to draw near to converse with God. And the people 
said unto Moses, " Speak thou with us, and we will hear ; but 
let not God speak with us, lest we die. And the people stood 
afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God 
was." (Exod. xx. 19 — 21.) To this occasion it was that Moses 
refers the first announcement of that remarkable prophecy on 
which we have already dwelt. It was when the people shrunk 
from the glories which indicated the miraculous presence of 
Jehovah, and wished for a Mediator to interpose between them 
(Deut. xvii. 16), that the word went forth, " They have well 
spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a 
Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee." (Deut. xvii. 
18.) Thus might he say, " I stood between the Lord and you at 
that time, to show you the word of the Lord." (Deut. v. 5.) In 
the same capacity we find him, at other times, interceding for the 
people. When they fell into that grievous sin, the worship of 
the golden calf, — when, again, they had sinned, in the matter of 
the spies, and God threatened to disinherit and cast them off, — 
when they provoked God by the waters of Meribah, — and on 
many similar occasions, with what fervour he implores the Divine 
forgiveness ! We find him rather disposed to implicate and mix 
up himself in the whims and infirmities of the people for whom 
he acted, than neglect the mediatorial part which he had under- 
taken to perform toward them. Under the tempting offer, " I 
will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they " 
(Numb. xiv. 12), he seems to spurn every thought but that of 
making common cause with the people, and in the largeness of 
a sympathising heart, he vents himself in still more earnest 
prayer, " Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people, 
according unto the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast for- 
given this people from Egypt even until now." (Numb. xiv. 19.) 
In prayers such as this, we are even informed, that the time was 
in great measure spent, when, rapt in holy vision on the Mount, he 
held mysterious converse with Heaven. " I fell down," he tells 
us, " before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; 
I neither did eat bread nor drink water, because of all your sins 
which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to 
provoke Him to anger ... I prayed, therefore, unto the Lord, and 



General Analogies. 95 

said, 0, Lord God, destroy not Thy people and thine inheritance, CHAP. 
which Thou hast redeemed through Thy greatness, which Thou HI. 
hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand." (Deut. ix. 
18, 26.) Could anything more justly denominate him a fit 
type of Him who interposed between the offended justice of God 
and the trembling offender ? Could any outward situation have 
prepared, in a more emphatic manner, that office of the greater 
Prophet, on Avhich all our hopes of acceptance depend ? Could 
anything more sensibly place before our eyes the "One God, and 
the One Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus?" 
(1 Tim. ii. 5.) 

6. — There were inferior resemblances, on which we need not 
particularly dwell : such as the miraculous escape from the 
slaughter of the infants, and the return from Egypt ; the forty 
days' fast ; the refusal of the offer of the kingdoms of this world ; 
the rejection by his own countrymen; the frequent murmuring 
of his followers ; the giving of manna ; the smiting of the rock ; 
the lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness; the shin- 
ing of his countenance ; the dying in the full vigour of his 
strength ; and (if it was so) the miraculous translation of his 
body to heaven. 

Of these, the lifting up the serpent in the wilderness is alluded 
to by our Lord Himself, in illustration of the mode of His own 
appointed death. In His " lifting up " of Himself He was to resem- 
ble — not indeed the serpent, whom (in a figure) He came to over- 
come — but Moses, who lifted up that serpent. " This brazen 
serpent put upon a pole," says Bishop Patrick, " was not a figure 
of Christ; but of the old serpent himself (the devil), as wounded, 
bruised, and dead, by the lifting up of Christ on the cross, where 
He entirely disarmed him of all his power to hurt us." (Vide 
Patrick, note, Numbers xxi. 9.) 

Such was the vividness of the type, through all its points of 
resemblance ; and such the exactness of the fulfilment. What 
proof is there in all this — not merely of the supernatural charac- 
ter of the Mosaic economy, but also of the visible manifestation 
of the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, who con- 
nects, in His all-seeing eye, the faintest shadow cast before with 
the actual event, which, according to appointed order and in the 
fulness of time, comes behind ! 



96 Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. IV. 

The Dispersion. 



QvXoyrjTos o Qtog Sjj/x, Kal tarai Xavadv ttcuq avTov ' 7r\arvvai Kvpioq 
r<i> 'Ia060, Kal fcarot/ojcdrw iv toiq o'licoig Sjjjtt* k.t.X. Kal on ovtu> ys- 
yovsv atcoiKrare' i)jU£if yap ('lovdaloi) ol awo tov 'S.rjp. Karayovng to ysvog, 
£7r//A0£r£, Kara rtjv tov Qeoii (3ov\r)v, Trj yfj tQv vlojv Xavadv, Kal haKari- 
crx eT( avTrjv' Kal on o't vloi 'Ia^tO, Kara rrjv tov Qsov Kpialv kTrzkQovTfQ 
Kal avTol vjujV, a0ei\ovTo vp.o)v tt\v yfjv Kal diaKaTEGxov avTtjv ^aiveTai. — 
Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph. 

" I do not know any better cure of (speculative) Atheism, next to 
the grace of God, than the due consideration of the Origination of 
Mankind."— Sir Matthew Hale. 



chap. The naturalist who is desirous of comprehending 



clearly his department of science, begins by arrang- 
ing the varieties of species under their genera, 
— these again under families, orders, classes, — till 
he has reached the limit which marks a separate 
province in the animal or vegetable kingdom. 
When this is done, and the results of his researches 
duly registered, suppose a book were found, coming 
down from some remote antiquity, and containing 
an exact catalogue of the very types and forms 
to which the parentage of the several varieties had 
been thus carefully traced, — would not the coin- 
cidence be considered a remarkable one? Would 
not much curiosity be excited about the author of 



Ancestry of the Four great Continents. 97 

such a book? Would not much credit be given chap. 

iv. 
him for the singular skill and insight he had thus — — ! — 

early discovered into so deep and complicated a 
subject? Would he not at once have accorded to 
him the first rank among writers in his branch of 
science? But Moses, in his relation of the first 
origin of nations, goes far beyond this. He traces 
to one blood all nations of the earth ; and, as 
though this were an easy task, he proceeds further 
to distinguish the several families of man, as they 
arise, under three distinctive heads, — - as though he 
foresaw the very localities which would become 
most celebrated on the map of the world, and 
wished to denominate them, from the 'Commence- 
ment, after their true original. We may almost 
fancy him to have had in view the three great 
continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, together 
with what we may include under the generic 
Hebrew term the 4 Isles of the Sea,' viz. the 
Western Hemisphere itself, when he wrote an 
account so suggestive of times and of people yet to 
come. Nay, — could we for a moment forget the 
remarkable character of the man, and the preter- 
natural assistances which he received, we might even 
be tempted to think that he must have written after 
those great geographical divisions had been estab- 
lished, and the infant tribes had been developed into 
full-grown national communities. If he had been 
taking a quiet survey, in the palmy days of Augus- 
tan literature, over all the known countries of the 

H 



98 Veracity of Genesis, 

chap, world, and their several histories ; and if he had 

IV. 

kept a memorandum of the principal localities that 

had occupied his attention in the course of such 
a survey, he could hardly have made a better 
selection than he has actually done under very 
different circumstances, and writing, as he did, 
some 1000 years before that period; though even 
then he came long before the earliest known writers 
of history. 

So far as we know, there is but one exception to 
this remark, and that regards the Chinese ; of which 
people, it may be said, we find no trace, not even 
the remotest mention, in Genesis. To account for 
this, it has been supposed by some, that China 
might have been the country where the ark rested 
and the first settlements were made by the im 
mediate descendants of Noah ; and that, therefore 
they were less careful to note down home events 
as we may call them — i.e. events concerning them 
selves ; — while those which took place to the right 
or left of the primitive settlements, and of which it 
might otherwise have been difficult to preserve the 
records, found their appropriate annalists. But 
this theory seems opposed to the usual practice of 
nations, which undoubtedly is, to preserve their 
own records first. Nor can it be conceded, that 
the ark ever drifted so far north as China, so as to 
make it answer to such a supposed primitive 
antiquity. We must, therefore, rather ascribe the 
apparent silence of Moses to our own ignorance of 



Chinese and American Tribes. 



99 



the true origin and early history of that singular 
people. According to Sir William Jones, the 
Chinese have no traditions beyond the 12th century 
before Christ. And even if they had existed 
nationally at an earlier period, our knowledge of 
them to the present day is so imperfect, that it 
would be the height of injustice and absurdity, 
to blame the Mosaic history with defects which 
may be owing to our own ignorance and want of 
information. 1 



CHAP. 
IV. 



1 That offshoot of the family of 
Hani which, commencing with 
Nimrod, and striking off to the 
north-east of Asia, retained its 
original warlike and predatory 
character, seems to have been the 
element of the great Mongolian 
branch of ethnographers. If so, 
it was a tribe of this branch which, 
extending itself over the fertile 
plains of China, took up a new 
taste for agricultural and peaceful 
pursuits, to which indeed that 
country must have powerfully in- 
vited them. For it is to the Mon- 
golian type that the Chinese evi- 
dently belong. 

In affinity with the same we 
may place the population which 
spread northward, and ultimately 
overflowed into the arctic regions, 
across the narrow strait which se- 
parates the Old World from the 
New, and so became the root- 
people of America. Thus, the 
high cheek-bone, pyramidal form 
of the head, eyes wide apart and 
elevated at the outer corners, — 
which distinguish the Mongolian, 



are found in the Esquimaux ; and 
so downwards through all the na- 
tive Indian tribes of America. 
The Aztecs, or Mexicans, are not 
of course included in the same 
general law with the native In- 
dian races ; but like the present 
lords of the soil in the States of 
North America and in other parts 
of that vast continent, they are 
supposed to be a race of foreigners 
of superior stamp, and boasting 
from the first a higher order of 
civilisation. But with respect to 
the indigenous races, though the 
face of an Indian chief has some 
advantages, the rest have gene- 
rally the type of countenance 
which bespeaks them to be allied 
to the races of north-eastern Asia. 
A keen observer of natural history 
remarks : "In the South Ameri- 
can Indian all these defects are 
still more exaggerated, and give 
to the races of the South a very 
marked character of inferiority. 
At the extreme point of the con- 
tinent, and in Tierra del Fuego, 
live the Pesherais, the most mis- 



h 2 



100 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. Passing, then, from this, and proceeding with 



those other people, of which Moses particularly 
speaks, we find that names are given us of certain 
immediate descendants of Noah, and their families, 
till we come down by gentle stages to the known 
periods of history, as recorded in other sources. 
But it is by Moses alone that we are guided back 
to the first link in the series. It is obvious to 
remark what peculiar advantages and opportunities 
he must have enjoyed for a work of this kind. 
He was living, according to the Hebrew chronology, 
not more than 800 years from the flood — or if we 
take the longest computation, that of Josephus and 
the Septuagint, it was not above 1,500 years; — a 
less period than that which divides us at the present 
time from the days of the Koman Empire. But 
this is not all. There were sixteen successions 
from Noah to Moses ; but, owing to the much 



shapen, the most uncultivated, to designate the Caucasian regions 

and the most wretched of all the as the cradle of man, the original 

inhabitants of the New World. point of departure for the tribes 

It is the same in advancing to- of the earth?" — Guyot's Earth 

wards the poles. Passing the and Man, ch. xvi. If the ark 

Tins, we arrive at the Laplanders; rested on the mountains of Ar- 

through the Mongolians we reach rnenia, this would well enough 

the Tungusians, the Samoiedes of accord with the latter hypothesis ; 

Siberia, and the Esquimaux of to say nothing of the many other 

North America. Thus, in all di- indications in the early Scripture 

rections, in proportion as we re- history which would point us to 

move from the geographical seat that whole range of country be- 

of the [original and] most beauti- tween the steeps of Caucasus and 

ful human type, the degeneration the Arabian Gulf, as the probable 

becomes more marked. Does not cradle of civilisation before and 

this surprising coincidence seem after the Flood. 



Germs of all future History in Genesis. 101 

greater longevity of that time, there were, in chap. 



all these generations, but four 1 steps through 
which the tradition would have had to come, from 
mouth to mouth, — viz., Kohath, Jacob, Abraham, 
and Shem, in order to reach Moses through his 
father Amram. And when we consider the care 
with which the Hebrews were wont to preserve the 
archives of their national history, it is easy to see 
to what satisfactory sources of information Moses 
had access, regarded only as a common writer. 
But we know that the Scriptures claim for him a 
much higher authority than this. And considering 
the disposition sometimes manifested to lower that 
authority, and to dethrone him, as it were, from the 
high position hitherto assigned him by the faith of 
the Christian Church, we are prepared to vindicate 
that position, and to establish, as far as we can from 
the premises before us, the evident tokens in the 
portion of his writings now under review, of a 
superior insight into coming events; — how, in a 
small space, he has laid the foundation of all future 
history ; — how he has supplied a link which connects 
and reconciles its known and later portions with 
what we are taught to believe of man's original des- 
tination. We think no instance too small, which 

1 Shem, who was an eyewitness Moses, with Kohath : whence the 

of the Flood, was contemporary tradition of the Flood would pass 

with Abraham, Abraham contem- to Moses through four hands, viz. 

porary with Jacob, Kohath, the Shem to Abraham, Abraham to 

son of Levi, contemporary with Jacob, Jacob to Kohath, Kohath 

Jacob, and Amram, the father of to Amram. 

h 3 



102 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, may serve to supply something in confirmation of 

: — those higher pretensions which we advocate as 

fairly belonging to Moses. And many such instances 
we think we have in this relation of the dispersion 
of nations. Written with no apparent design of 
displaying superior intelligence, it so completely 
harmonises with known and later events, — it so 
completely comprises in few elements, the very 
germ of all coming history, — that we can scarcely 
observe such admirable perfection in its kind, in 
so early a document, without suspecting some 
supernatural aid. And while some contend, that 
Genesis deals only with the history of the chosen 
people, and that the meaning of the book is ex- 
hausted in its application to that one people, we 
shall be rather led to conclude that it has a far 
wider object, and an universal bearing upon all 
mankind ; and that through and beyond, as it were, 
the portals of Judaism, it embraces within its 
precincts the interests of all the other nations 
of the world. Moses himself speaks expressly 
(Genesis x. 5) of the first peopling of "the isles 
of the Gentiles ; " and if there were no other proof, 
this alone would serve to show that he was not 
limited in his object to the people of the Hebrews; 
it would be an authority to us to apply his relation 
as widely as it will bear ; as widely, indeed, as to 
comprehend the whole civilised world. And for 
this, we doubt not, there was given him more than 
the advantages of a comparatively recent tradition. 



History of the Line of Shem. 103 

or of access to authentic documents. We cannot chap. 

IV. 

think that he stumbled by chance on that skilful : — 

selection of names which have so often reproduced 
themselves under various forms in the annals of 
nations, and have obtained a world-wide celebrity, 
not from their occurring in Genesis only, but 
because they belong to history. The more we 
study this portion of the sacred narrative, the more 
we shall be impressed with the conviction that it 
could have proceeded from no ordinary hand, but 
from a man raised up for an extraordinary purpose, 
by the special Providence of God. 

For the further elucidation of the argument, it 
will be necessary to enter a little on the actual 
history of some of the principal races, as they have 
figured on the stage of the civilised world ; — con- 
necting them afterwards with the three sons of 
Noah, " of them the whole earth was overspread." 
(Gen. ix. 19.) 

1. First in order, let us take the line of 
Shem, With Abraham we may, perhaps, begin 
the clear history of this people. A period of 430 
years brings us from the birth of Isaac to the 
arrival out of Egypt into the promised land — an 
important epoch, during which they had experi- 
enced every variety of fortune, and had begun to 
be known as a distinct people. They settle in 
Canaan ; and the land is divided among the twelve 
tribes. Though they have no king, they are under 
the direct government of the Almighty, and of 

H 4 



104 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, rulers sent by Him till the time of Saul. Another 
400 years had now elapsed, and their prosperity 
reached its climax under David, successor of Saul, 
and Solomon his son. The division of the king- 
dom ensued, and the national prosperity began to 
decline. The Babylonish captivity completed its 
fall. The line of their kings, however, survived 
in Zerubbabel, who rebuilt the temple. Ezra 
restored the laws, and Nehemiah the walls of Je- 
rusalem. With Cyrus began the Persian rule over 
Judaea : from the Persians it passed to the Grecians, 
and thence to the Romans. Under all these, the 
Jews retained the appointment of their own Chief 
Priests, who had a kind of princely authority 
among them. As a nation, and excepting their 
share in the inconveniences to which they were 
exposed in the wars between Syria and Egypt, 
they were on the whole well treated by their con- 
querors, till the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, B.C. 
169 — 166, who grievously oppressed them, and 
shamefully profaned their temple and city. From 
this oppression they were delivered by Judas 
Maccabeus. The Maccabees continued in power 
till Herod. And shortly after our Saviour was 
born in Bethlehem, the country was divided among 
the three sons of Herod. But disorders so often 
broke out that, a.d. 12, it was determined by the 
Emperor Augustus to take the government out of 
the hands of the Jewish people; and a Roman, 
Coponius by name, was made Procurator for 



Its Relations with other Countries. 105 

deputy-governor) of Judaea, under Quirinus, Pre- char 

sident of Syria. The taxing of it as a Roman : — 

province completed their degradation, and accounts 
for the extreme horror with which they regarded 
the Romans, to whom they were thus made to own 
their complete subjection. Hitherto they had not 
been without some independent governor of their 
own, mostly resident at Jerusalem. Now the only 
governor was a Roman, and he lived at Caasarea, 
in Galilee. 

Comparing this outline of Jewish history with 
the Mosaic notices of the people that should come 
in contact with the line of Shem, — we find in the 
book of Genesis some first traces of the Persians, or 
Elamites (according to their Hebrew appellation), 
in "Elam;" of the Hebrews themselves in "Eber;" 
of the Assyrians in " Asshur ; " of the Babylonians 
in "Babel;" of the Greeks and Romans in "Elishah" 
(identified by Dr. Kalisch with Hellas and Elis) and 
in the ships of " Chittim." But more than this : we 
find the line of Shem peculiarly distinguished by 
being made the subject of several distinct prophe- 
cies ; we find it standing in a kind of galaxy of pre- 
dictions, which, though scattered here and there in 
the Pentateuch, yet collectively throw a most con- 
spicuous lustre on the subject of them. We might 
here adduce all that is predicted of the several 
tribes 1 ; but that most striking prediction of the 
tribe of Judah may sufiice : " The sceptre shall not 



1 Gen. xlviii. xlix j Deut. xxxiii. 



106 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between 

! — his feet, until Shiloh come ; and to Him shall the 

gathering of the people be." Add the prophecy 
of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 17, 24), "And there 
shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall 
rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of 
Moab, and destroy all the children of Seth. . . . 
And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, 
and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and 
he also shall perish forever;" l and the still earlier 
declaration (Gen. ix. 26, 27), " Blessed be the 
Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his ser- 
vant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall 
dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be 
his servant." And, to end this account, those 
directly Messianic predictions may be cited, 
which we find delivered in the books of Moses : 
such especially as that twice repeated (Deut. xviii. 

1 Gen. xlix. 10. The foregoing of the Jews themselves, and the 

summary of Jewish history is suf- seat of it was at Jerusalem, in the 

ficient to show the exact fulfil- tribe of Judah, till the end of the 

ment of this prophecy, delivered reign of Archelaus, a. d. 12, when 

1700 years before ! If it be ob- the first Roman procurator was 

jected, that the sceptre had al- appointed, as we have seen above, 

ready departed from Judah before The stress in the prophecy is not 

the birth of our Saviour, and that on the word " sceptre," but, after 

Zedekiah was the last king, e. c. the Hebrew fashion, the latter 

610 ; — we reply : The sovereignty clause of the verse explains and 

of the kings did indeed cease with qualifies the former. The verse 

Zedekiah, but not the supremacy is thus explained by Bp. Patrick : 

of Judah among the tribes, which " There shall be either kings or 

is the thing here immediately inferior governors among the Jews, 

spoken of. Moreover the govern- till Christ come." Judah included 

ment remained, and in a great Benjamin and Levi, who were in- 

measure independent, in the hands corporated with it. 



The ultimate Subjugation of Shem. 107 

15, 18, 19): "The Lord thy God will raise up chap. 

unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of : — 

thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye 
hearken. . . . And it shall come to pass, that 
whosoever will not hearken unto my words which 
he shall speak in my name, I will require it of 
him." Immediately connected with which are the 
express threatenings of the downfall of the people, 
because of their unbelief (Lev. xxvi. ; Deut. 
xxviii. ) : some passages referring to the time of 
the first temple, and to the Assyrian and Baby- 
lonish captivities * : others to the return from 
Babylon, and the final destruction of the temple 
by the Komans. 2 These prophecies, though it may 
not be easy to arrange them in precise periods of 
time, suffer nothing by comparison with others 
delivered much nearer the events by subsequent 
prophets. The sky was not yet overcast ; but the 
first rumbling of the thunder is heard, which 
swells up and gathers strength in the pages of 
sacred writ, till the " days of vengeance " were 
fully come, and the predicted ruin fell down on 
the chosen seed, to be reversed only when they 
turn effectually and (it is to be hoped) finally to 
Him that smites them. The history of the line of 
Shem has more or less touched upon that of the 
other families of the sons of Noah. We will now 
take them separately, and 

1 Deut. xxviii. 20 — 49 are thus usually understood. 
2 So Deut. xxviii. 49—56. 



108 Veracity- of Genesis. 

chap 2. Next, the family of Ham. We may take Egypt 

'- — as the principal representative of this branch; 

although, from the very early settlement of that 
country, and from the successive importations which 
it received, it contained a very strong infusion of 
the other races. The first King of Egypt, men- 
tioned by Herodotus, and famous in all Egyptian 
annals, was Menes. He was the reputed founder 
of Memphis, which afterwards became the capital 
city of all Egypt. In those early times, the con- 
stitution of the country was rather a confederation 
of separate vopou, or petty states, than one large * 
kingdom — a condition somewhat resembling the 
confederation of kingdoms and duchies in modern 
times, under the German Empire. It is now admit- 
ted on all hands, that in the first eighteen dynasties 
of Manetho, the names on his lists were for the 
most part those of contemporary, not of successive 
kings. Attempts at consolidation were now and 
then made, but without appreciable result, till the 
kingdoms were united under Osirtasen L, " Lord 
of the Upper and Lower Country," as his style 



1 "Kingdoms," observes Sir xiv. 8 — 16. — Introduction to Uni- 

John Stoddart, " in those days versal History, part ii. p. 150. 

were often of very limited extent. "Kings" of Canaan occur in 

A few years after his short sojourn the Book of Judges, with little 

in Egypt, Abraham, with only more than a few fenced cities for 

" three hundred and eighteen their territory. Adoni-bezek, king 

trained servants," defeated four of Bezek, boasted that seventy 

"kings " who had previously over- " kings " had gathered bread un- 

come five other " king's." Gen. der his table. Judg. i. 7. 



Intercourse of Egypt with Arabian Tribes. 



109 



runs on the monuments. This was during the 
Xllth dynasty : but the final union and con- 
solidation was not till the XVIIIth, and after the 
successful expulsion of the Hycsos, or shepherd- 
kings, under Amosis. That remarkable race appear 
to have invaded Egypt from the north-east — or 
from part of Arabia ; and held it in partial sub- 
jection — that is, chiefly the country of Lower Egypt 
— for upwards of 500 years. These Arab kings had 
been great persecutors of the Egyptian religion, 
and are supposed to have inculcated the worship of 
the Sun, to the exclusion of the multitude of 
nature-gods with which Egypt abounded. It is 
thought that Joseph was sold into Egypt about l 



CHAP. 
IV. 



1 So Dr. Hales. Bp. Cumber- 
land makes it 96 years. It seems 
an excess of caution in some cri- 
tics to doubt the shepherd-kings 
of Manetho because not expressly 
mentioned by the Greek and Ro- 
man writers. See Sir John Stod- 
dart, Introduction, p. 184 ; Quar- 
terly Review, Apr. 1859, Bunsen's 
Egypt. In the account of Diodo- 
rus there is abundant room for 
such a race of kings. Why, else, 
should he speak of u many stran- 
gers being in Egypt from all parts, 
who used foreign rites in the sa- 
cred ministries and sacrifices?" 
And again, when he comes to the 
expulsion : i( The men of other 
nations, therefore, were expelled ; 
and of these the noblest and bravest, 
under the guidance of Danaus, 
Cadmus, and other celebrated lead- 



ers, came into Greece, and the 
parts adjacent," &c. &c. Niebuhr 
says : u The indescribable hatred 
of the Egyptians against the Hyc- 
sos is frequently manifested in the 
monuments. A red Egyptian has 
before him a yellow Asiatic in 
chains, and stamps upon him. 
We also find a quantity of painted 
papyrus sandals, in the interior of 
which a Hycsos is represented ; 
so that the Egyptian, in putting 
his foot into the sandal, put it upon 
his enemy." — Lectures, vol .i. p. 43. 
A papyrus in the British Museum 
in which " a shepherd-king " is 
mentioned may be quoted as 
further evidence. The " celebra- 
ted leaders " of such a race would 
easily obtain the name and rank 
of il kings," and would, doubtless, 
in prosperous times, have dis- 



110 Veracity of Genesis. 

char thirteen years after their final exclusion by Amosis ; 

'- — and that they were in power during Abraham's 

visit to that country. With Amosis and his suc- 
cessors, may be said to begin the true historical 
period of Egypt, though we are able to gather 
much from the monuments appertaining to earlier 
periods. The magnificent tombs and temples with 
which Egypt abounded, were covered with elaborate 
devices, serving the double purpose of ornamen- 
tation and historical record. Of the successors of 
Amosis 1 , however, we have some exact notices in 
extant authors. And it is of some interest to 
know, that somewhere in this dynasty, or in the 
early part of the following, it is generally agreed 
to place the great event of the Exodus. Civilisation 
had now attained its highest point in Egypt, and 
her kings their utmost grandeur. Commerce had 
largely extended; and the recent introduction of 
the horse had added a new arm to their military 
strength. In arts they had been famous from the 
earliest period; and the monuments leave us no 



played a proportionate royal state. ing often, both on the monuments 

Comp. last note, and see other and in other records, to a great 

general evidence of an Hycsos diversity of names for one and 

domination in the note appended the same individual. Thotmes 

to Chap. II. III., for example, " is remarkable," 

1 This name is indifferently says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, u for 

written, Ames, Amosis, and Teth- the great variety in the mode of 

mosis. It should be observed, writing his name, of which I have 

that the spelling of words seems more than thirty varieties!" — 

to have been very irregular in the Eawlinson's Herod., Append., 

Egyptian demotic character, lead- book ii. ch. viii. § 20. 



Egypt represents the Line of Ham. Ill 

room to doubt, that long before this time, they had chap. 

in this respect attained a very high degree of ! — 

excellence. This important discovery would lead 
to the conclusion that they must have originally 
imported the knowledge of arts and sciences from 
the original cradle of civilisation. It is not reason- 
able to think that all scientific knowledge perished 
in the flood. It was doubtless, handed down and 
perpetuated in the family of Noah, — and like the 
elements of religion itself, spread from the Asiatic 
centre to the different lands peopled and colonised 
by his sons and descendants. Among the rest, they 
seem to have brought letters, or alphabetical 
characters; and even that knowledge of the one 
Supreme God, and those notions of a future state, 
which seem never wholly to have died out, even 
under the degrading forms of superstition with 
which they were overlaid. Such is the conclusion 
of the most eminent writers, particularly as regards 
the early date of civilisation among this people, 
which, therefore, we may ascribe, not to their own 
unassisted genius, but to the advantages of birth 
and early tradition. We forbear to trace their 
history minutely onwards through subsequent 
periods : how they fell at length under Cambyses, 
and became tributary to Persia; soon after to 
Alexander ; the reigns of the Ptolemies and 
their successors, and their wars with the kings of 
Syria ; how they were forced to implore succours of 
the Komans, B.C. 203 ; how they became, under 



112 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. Cleopatra, a mere Eoman province ; afterwards the 

'■ — seat of a Christian Patriarchate ; and how they 

were finally over-run and subdued by the Maho- 
medan armies under the Caliph Omar, a.d. 666. 

There are other kingdoms which deserve to be 
classified, not only in point of antiquity, but as 
seemingly of kindred race and origin with this of 
Egypt. Thus Phoenicia had certainly its kingdom 
of Tyre ; and a still more conspicuous offset in 
Carthage. But the great rival empire was clearly 
that of Assyria — not the later Chaldeo-Babylonian 
monarchy begun by Nabonassar, but that founded 
by Kinus at a much earlier period. Here, again, 
the monuments are our principal guide. And 
these, most assuredly, bespeak a similar character 
and antiquity with those of Egypt. They are 
marked, indeed, with that bold and massive exu- 
berance which suited the youth of the world, and 
of which it may be said with equal truth as of the 
human stature in times before the flood 1 , " There 
were giants in the earth in those days." The exact 
date of those wonderful structures, and of the 
early period of Babylon's greatness (for it was 
here that Mnus established his capital), can only 
now be matter of conjecture. Like the Egyptians, 
this people indulged in the wildest and most 
extravagant assertions on this head, — ascribing to 
themselves an antiquity agreed on all hands to be 
entirely fabulous, though they professed to derive 

1 Gen. vi. 4. 



Assyrian Chronology. 113 

it from astronomical calculations. In the time of chap. 

iv. • 
Alexander the Great, and upon the taking of : — 

Babylon by that king, a Grecian, Callisthenes, is 
said to have been employed by Aristotle, to 
ascertain by strict inquiries the true period to 
which those calculations reached back. He found 
it to be about 1,900 years; which would give us 
in round numbers, for the first foundation of the 
Assyrian Empire by Belus, the father of Ninus, 
B.C. 2,200. Taking now the Scripture account, — 
which gives us Nimrod for the founder, and places 
him in the second generation from Ham — we have 
only to take some fifty or sixty years from the usual 
date of the flood, and it ought to tally with this 
other computation ; which it actually does, ac- 
cording to the Hebrew chronology, within a few 
years. The longer chronology of the LXX. and 
of Josephus, would not materially alter the case. 
Thus we have found a very tolerable approximation 
to a right date for the first beginnings of the Assy- 
rian Empire; and have so far harmonised sacred 
with profane history. A various translation of the 
Hebrew (Gen. x. 11) introduces a slight confu- 
sion in this part of the narrative. " Out of that 
land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh." 
Now the Asshur of Scripture occurs elsewhere 
(Ch. x. 22) as a son of Shem. To the Semitic 
race, therefore, would seem to be ascribed in this 
verse, some share in the settlement of Assyria, or 
at least in the erection of a rival city at Nineveh. 



114 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. But another translation makes it, "From that 



IV. 



land he," i. e. Nimrod, " went out into Assyria, 
and founded Nineveh : " which agrees better with 
the account in the text, and is the more approved 
rendering. There is at the same time, every 
reason to think, that, in the first beginnings of the 
Assyrian, as of the Egyptian Empire, the two races 
of Shem and Ham were very much mixed up. 
Such an intermixture could hardly be avoided, so 
near to the central and original seat of civilisation. 
And it accounts for the Assyrians at a later period 
appearing to understand the Jews' language, and 
the Jews the Assyrians'. 1 

But without pursuing the history further, we 
may now gather into one view the scattered 
notices in Genesis as regards this line of Ham, 
which, however brief, are sufficient to constitute 
that very surprising link which we are tracing 
between the written pages of Moses, and the 
existing facts of history. And we ask, as before, 
can any attentive and impartial reader fail to 
recognise in " Mizraim " (Gen. x. 6) the El-Misr 2 , 
to this day the vernacular name of Egypt? in the 
Patriarch Ham, its still more ancient name Chemi? 3 
in the " Caphtorim" (Gen. x. 14) the Copts? 4 in 



1 See 2 Kings, xyiii. 26 — 28 ; 3 See Rawlinson's Herod, ri. 
Isa. xxxvi. 11 — 13. § 15. 

2 Tj)v Myv-n-Tov Mtaprjv, icai 4 The root also of Al-rv7rr-og. 
Mtcrpcuovg tovq Aiyv7rriovg «Vav- (Tvttt = Copt.) 



Tff ol ravrt]v olicovvrtg KaXovfxtv. 
— Joseph. Antiq. i. 6. 



Corresponding Variety of Languages. 115 

" Cush" (Gen. x. 6) Cuzestan? in " Nimrod" (Gen. chap. 

x. 8, 9) Niniasand Nineveh? in "Babel" (Gen. x. '— 

10) Babylon? in "Calah" and "Calneh" (Gen. x. 
10, 11) Chalda3a? The matter is really as plain and 
plainer than half the things we are in the habit of 
admitting on far less evidence every day ; as that 
"shire," "share," "sheer," "shore," "sheriff," indi- 
cate some common root signifying to " divide :" — 
that "journal" and "diurnal," meet in their original 
" dies ;" and that " stock " in all its various senses 
may be traced to an ancient participle of the verb to 
" stick! " Add, that in the Scripture "Noph" (not 
however a Genesis word) all are agreed to recog- 
nise the root of the Egyptian Memphis, originally 
written (and still found so on the monuments) 1 
M'-Nuph-i ; and Osburn suspects the Scripture 
"Noah" in the Egyptian God Nu or Nub, for 
"the great abyss." 2 Not that mere verbal corre- 
spondence is all we have to allege ; we have shown 
that facts agree as well as names; the earlier 
intimations of Moses tally with the later researches 
of history and science. 

Before we pass on to the third of the principal 
races concerned in the dispersion, we will stop to 
notice a few particulars, as to the variety of lan- 
guages which formed so strong a distinguishing 
feature between them all. Owing to the necessary 
mixture of races, of which we have lately taken 

1 Osburn, Monumental History of Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 261, 506. 

2 Ibid, vol. i. pp. 239, 240. 

i 2 



116 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, notice in the line of Ham, as inseparable from the 

! — geographical proximity of their earliest settlements, 

and also, doubtless, from commercial relations after- 
wards, it cannot be expected that the line of de- 
marcation should always be strictly kept, or even 
distinctly perceptible. But with all this partial 
confusion, and under all the varieties of classifica- 
tion that occur among philologists, there is still a 
remarkable analogy between the races and the 
tongues, which we proceed to state under their 
several heads. 

(a.) We have a distinct language for the line of 
Shem. It was, indeed, long suspected that the 
Semitic language would prove the one mother 
tongue of all. This idea, though now very gene- 
rally abandoned, serves at any rate to show the 
wide-spread use and influence, as well as the dis- 
tinctive character of that very ancient language — 
the staple of the Arabic, the Hebrew, the Chaldee, 
and the Syriac, and which is called the Semitic or 
Aramaean. It was spoken in these various dialects 
and others in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Arabia, and 
was the general and stationary language of all those 
parts. Its characteristic according to Bopp, con- 
sisted in its having three consonants for the root, 
and dissyllabic verbs. Through its use in Arabic 
literature, and also from its being made the 
medium of Divine revelation, this is undoubtedly 
the most venerable, if not exactly the most 
ancient of all the tongues we are acquainted 
with, (b.) Coming next to the line of Ham, we 



The Arabic, Sclavonic, and Sanscrit. 



Ill 



meet with the difficulty before alluded to, arising 
from the frequent early intercommunion and ad- 
mixture of this race with the line of Shem. It is 
to this, perhaps, that we must ascribe whatever of 
similarity there subsists between the Syriac and 
the Coptic. The most distinguishing mark, per- 
haps, of the sons of Ham, is their addiction gene- 
rally to the hieroglyphic character. Beyond this 
it may be difficult to assign any exact language to 
the descendants of Ham, unless we take the third 
in the threefold division of Sir William Jones, viz. 
the Sclavonic 1 , and suppose that as they spread 



CHAP. 
IV. 



1 It is not pretended that an 
exact agreement can be found be- 
tween the number of the lan- 
guages and that of the races men- 
tioned in the text, or that no other 
considerable varieties are to be 
found. The extreme variety of 
the dialects, and the great dif- 
ficulty of sorting them under pro- 
per heads, would make any such 
assumption in the highest degree 
absurd. Thus, in Caucasia alone, 
we are assured that among tribes 
numbering not more than 500,000 
people, there are found some 36 
different dialects. See Haxthau- 
sen's Tribes of the Caucasus, pp. 
16, 21. In the South Sea islands 
the Bishop of New Zealand has 
found as many different tongues 
as there are islands. In India and 
in Africa, the diversity seems not 
much less in the different tribes. 
What is asserted in the text, is 
simply this : — That for the sons 
of Shem and of Japheth, at least, 
there are found two great mother- 



tongues, the use of which, from 
the necessary admixture of peo- 
ples, more or less spread to the 
settlements of Hani. In all their 
known settlements we find that 
wherever they went, those parti- 
cular tongues went with them, 
and the traces of one invariably 
assist us in finding the place of 
the other ; and the last assertion is, 
that, with their places thus dis- 
covered or confirmed, the accounts 
in Genesis will be found most re- 
markably to fit in and correspond. 
That there were other tongues 
besides, we do not question ; but 
as none can show that they were 
of the same antiquity with those 
that have been ascribed to the 
Semitic and Japhetian races, so 
no one disputes that, in the pro- 
gress of the dispersion, such new 
languages were likely enough to 
spring up and be disseminated in 
the parts more recently brought 
into occupation. It is, however, 
remarkable that the classification 



i 3 



IV. 



118 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, northward, and gradually formed into a perfectly 
distinct community from the Semitic branch, this 
Sclavonic language rose up among them, and be- 
came distinctive of the nations with whom they 
amalgamated, and of whom indeed they might 
have been the original root. Along with the 
above, though we have not yet followed the 
history of this line, we will mention, (c.) That 
most remarkable language of all, — the root of 
the Indo-European tongues, — the great trunk 
language, as it were, of all the civilised world: 
that which, in Bopp's division, consists of mo- 
nosyllabic roots, susceptible of composition. The 
Sanscrit is considered the mother-tongue in this 
division. And from it we find diverging, on the 
one hand the Teutonic and the Celtic, and on the 
other the classic tongues of Greece and Kome. 
And thus it has been the vehicle of all the com- 
merce and civilisation of the West : fitly, therefore, 



of that great oriental scholar. Sir or monosyllabic character ; others 
William Jones, corresponds very among the Polynesian tribes ; 
nearly with our three races, viz. others, again, in the American, 
(1.) the Arabic, (2.) the Sanscrit, and so on, — which cannot well be 
(3.) the Sclavonic. This latter reduced to those principal lan- 
might belong to the north-eastern guages of the civilised world on 
settlements of the sons of Ham, which we have here enlarged. 
to whom, in a former note we Bopp, in like manner, attempted 
have ascribed the characters of a threefold division ; the third of 
the great Mongolian race which which admits a similar distinct 
peopled those parts. We have, class of languages for the N. and 
however, no disposition to deny NE. tribes, which has been since 
what other philologists have since called the Turanian. See Max 
asserted, — that there are minor Miiller on the Non- Iranian and 
peculiarities, as in the Chinese Non-Semitic Languages. 



The Line of Japhet. 119 

belonging to a race whose frequent migrations and chap. 
commercial activity have enabled them to carry — 

both their language and their arts to all corners of 
the world. 

3. And now, in accordance with this last observa- 
tion, we have only to notice, in the third great di- 
vision of our subject, the history of that line of 
Japhet, which we thus connect with the most wide- 
spread and polished of all known languages, and to 
see how wonderfully its history corresponds. From 
the time that Cadmus brought letters to Greece, 
and Greece passed them over to Italy, what inter- 
change of arts, what rivalry of progress, what 
commercial activity and enterprise may we not 
trace in the monuments of those countries, and by 
the testimony of accredited authors ! The first 
colonies of Greece came from Egypt ; but, Cadmus 
sailing directly from Phoenicia, the letters he 
brought with him are, perhaps, to be considered 
of Phoenician rather than Egyptian origin. The 
Argonautic expedition, the Theban war, the siege 
of Troy, attest the early spirit of enterprise 
which distinguished this people. Greece began 
soon to push forward to Italy. But it seems she 
found herself preceded there by earlier settlements, 
particularly the Etruscan, Umbrian, and earlier 
Latin races. The Siculi were also spread along 
the whole north-eastern coast. Phoenician ships 
had probably brought new settlers, wherever they 
landed — settlers more or less of the same race, 

i 4 



120 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, but ready to receive from Greece whatever she 
might bring of her own religion and arts. It is 
remarkable that, while the whole people of Greece 
was called by the Latins Pelasgi, Pelasgus is said 
to have visited Italy not many years after Cadmus 
arrived in Thebes. From which it is evident that 
Pelasgus was some generic name for a sea-faring 
and scattered people — a name which passed from 
a leader, probably, to a tribe, from a tribe to a 
nation, and from the nation to the individual 
members. Later still, in Italy, a community of 
freebooters, throwing their protection over all who 
resorted to their infant city, founded Rome. 
Through the line of her kings, consuls, dicta- 
tors, emperors, Rome became gradually the mis- 
tress of the world. In the east and the south 
she crushed, or undermined, the ancient king- 
doms of Parthia, Syria, and Egypt : while Greece, 
Gaul, Britain, and many people of the north and 
west of Germany, yielded to her sway. If after 
this she outgrew her own strength, and broke up 
the magnificent empire she had acquired, it was 
rather to mix with surrounding nations than to 
be subdued by them. And, in mixing, she leavened 
them with the remains of her ancient civilisation 
and laws. The Teutonic and Gothic hordes, which 
had poured down upon her, and had seized the 
more fruitful plains of the south, infused a fresh 
spirit of liberty into the mixed forms of polity 
which now arose, and upon which were founded 



The " Javan" and u Io7iians" of the Greeks. 121 

those numerous kingdoms, which have since con- chap. 

stituted the platform of modern and Christian ! — 

Europe. Such being the stirring character of the 
third, or Japhetian, branch, what a foreshadow- 
ing of it may we not see in the very names set 
down by Moses in that part of his genealogy ! 
More still, in his express assertion (Genesis x. 5), 
" By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided :" 
an assertion repeated and generalised (ver. 32), 
" These are the families of the sons of Noah, after 
their generations, in their nations : and by these 
were the nations divided in the earth after the 
flood. " The very name of Japhet is preserved in 
the annals of the poet : 

. . ivg Ttaig laizETOio 

Hes. "Ejoy. kcu 'Hfxip. t. 

Javan, his son, is equally perpetuated in the 
'laousg of Homer: 

'Ev6)a de TiOtuiTOi teal 'laoveg, 

the Mare Ionium, and, generally, in the Ionic 
tribes of Greece. "The King of Grecia" (Dan. 
viii. 21) is, in the Hebrew, " King of Javan." (IK) 
The same occurs for the isles of Greece, Is. lxvi. 19, 
Ezek. xxvii. 13; ^sch., Pers., 182, 569, 1009; 
Aristoph. Acharn., 104. 1 So with the other sons 
of Japhet: — in " Tiras " (Gen. x. 2), we have 
"Thrace; in " Gomer (Gen. x. 2, 3), the Cimmerii, 

1 "Where the Scholiast has — Travraq rove, "EWtjvag 'laovag o\ 
fiapBapci IkoKovv. 



122 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. Cymri, Gemri, Germans; in " Biphath " (Gen. x. 

'■ — 3), the Biphsei ; in Kittim (Gen. x. 4), Citium, a 

trading port of Cyprus, and hence the isles beyond, 
(transferred to the Greeks generally, see 1 Mace, 
i. 1) ; in "Elishah" (Gen. x. 4), Elis, or Hellas; 
in " Magog " and " Meshech," the great Scythian, 
Tartar, and Muscovite tribes. 

These analogies though apparently founded on 
the bare names of a few more eminent persons, are 
certainly remarkable. But the analogy, as was 
before observed, is more than in name. In phy- 
siognomy, language, habits, indications are found 
of a stream of enterprise continually flowing west- 
ward from an Asiatic centre, the people bringing 
letters and the seeds of a superior civilisation and 
knowledge in arts and sciences along with them. 
The Mosaic account, so far from contradicting this 
idea, remarkably confirms it. Other indications 
merely lead us to suspect an original connection 
between the people thus reaching and visiting the 
different shores, as the only hypothesis to solve the 
existing phenomena. Moses enables us actually to 
trace this connection. In two passages he marks 
out with a few strokes of his pen that very ten- 
dency which has characterised the several branches 
of this race, and which has been the secret of their 
spreading so far, and having such influence upon 
the civilisation and progress of the world : " God 
shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents 
of Shem" (Gen. ix. 27); and, " By these" (the 



Colonising Genius of Japhetian Line. 123 

sons of Japhet) " were the isles of the Gentiles chap. 

. . . IV 
divided in their lands." This people seem evi- : — 

dently gifted from the first with that spirit of 
industry and love of enterprise, which has made 
them the great colonisers of Europe and the West, 
and which has eventuated in the strong stirring 
spirit, the busy inventive genius of the Anglo- 
Saxon, and the lively, social, and civilising temper 
of the Celt, and which finally, engrafted upon the 
faith of Christ, has been the great instrument of 
dispelling the darkness of heathenism, and diffusing 
the Gospel light. 

By the help of a little imagination, but not more 
than is accorded to the genius of modern criticism 
when it seeks to create for us, out of scraps of ancient 
legends and mythic tales, a kind of Textus receptus 
of early history, we might easily go further, and 
expand the brief hints in Genesis into a tolerably 
complete sketch of ancient Europe. We have only 
to fill up the outline given us, as to the several 
directions taken by the three sons of Japhet and 
their descendants, and imagine to ourselves the 
several advantages of soil and climate, which each 
would find awaiting him on taking the directions 
which they did. Those who entered Greece, for 
instance, we can well conceive to have settled down 
contentedly at once, while the more northern set- 
tlers, led at first by the same irresistible impulse 
to wander in quest of habitations, yet not meeting 
with the same attractions, would feel themselves 



124 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, less permanently tied to their new settlements. 

— And we might expect to hear, as indeed we do, of 

their afterwards repairing elsewhere in search of 
improvement ; thereby accounting for all those fre- 
quent incursions of Gothic hordes, which occupy so 
large a place in the real history of subsequent times. 
We only mention this to show that in designating 
a certain migratory disposition as the peculiar 
characteristic of the Japhetian family, Moses strikes 
the very key-note of their history. And as nothing 
could harmonise better with actual facts, though it 
could only have been known to him by Divine 
illumination, so nothing could more clearly show 
that he possessed that gift of illumination, and was 
raised up for his office by the special providence of 
God. There are two names which occur in the 
Mosaic record, and whose remarkable application 
we have not yet noticed, but have reserved them 
for particular mention here, where we think they 
may serve more strikingly to corroborate our argu- 
ment. In the outline we before gave of the Grecian 
colonies, it appeared that a people called Pelasgi 
made a prominent figure in the early history of 
Greece, indeed, that the Latins frequently denomi- 
nated the whole people by that generic name. The 
Tusci or Etruscans were not less famous in their 
way. The Pelasgi, however, bearing the character 
of a peaceful and quiet people — people of passage 
from place to place, and carrying, doubtless, the 
seeds of an early civilisation, and the elements of 



Etymology of Pelasgi and Tusci. 



125 



an oriental tongue ; the Tusci, a seafaring people 
also, but of more commanding genius, probably 
shipbuilders and merchant carriers to the other, 
being themselves of a sterner and more martial 
spirit. What is the probable origin of each ? We 
find the latter indifferently written Tusci, Tuschi, 
and Turschi, and we submit that they may have 
had some connection with the Scripture " Tarshish." 
We also subscribe to the opinion of Bochart, Stil- 
lingfleet \ &c, that the Pelasgi came from " Peleg." 



CHAP. 
IV. 



1 See several reasons for this 
derivation of the Pelasgi, in Stil- 
lingfleet. He quotes this de- 
scription of them from Strabo : — 
UoXXa^ov rrjg Evptoirrjg to TraXcdov 
7rXavw[jLsvoi ' and again, 7roXv7rXa- 
vov teal to.%v to tOvog Ttpbg eTrava- 
GT&veig ' and he adds : " These 
Pelasgi confined not themselves 
to Greece, but were dispersed into 
the neighbour islands, as Chios, 
Crete, Lesbos, Lemnos, Imbro, 
Samos, as will appear afterwards ; 
and at last came into Italy, as is 
well known, and are thought to 
be the same with the Tyrrhenians, 
and by some conceived to be the 
first founders of Rome. After the 
Hellenes began to appear, Greece 
was ditided into rb HsXaa-y ikov 
and to 'EXXtjviKov, as Herodotus 
witnesseth, and so these two ap- 
pear to be a very different people 
from one another, and not the 
same under different names, as is 
commonly thought. This suffi- 
ciently appears from their lan- 
guage, wherein they differed quite 



from one another. So Herodotus : 

"'Rvav oi UeXaayoi j3dp€apov yXaxr- 
<jav 'hvreg, they used a barbarous 
language. That the Pelasgi may 
with great probability be derived 
from J">Q, Fhaleg, we have the 
concurrent testimony of two 
learned persons, Grotius and Sal- 
masius, who are contented to 
mention it without bringing much 
evidence of reason for it. Epi- 
phanius de Scythis (1 Ep. ad Acu. 
§ 2) brings them from Scythia. 
And that some of Shem's posterity 
settled in those parts it is else- 
where manifest. Coming down 
first into Thessalia, they seem to 
have fixed themselves chiefly in 
Arcadia (lleXacryoi oi QeaaaXoi 
yevog cnro UeXaoyov tov 'ApicdScg 
yevo/xevov TroXvTrXdvrirov ' Hesy- 
chius), and thence spread up and 
down by degrees towards the sea- 
side. And hence the agreement 
of the ancient Greek language 
with the Hebrew in many of its 
primitive words ; as also the re- 
mainders of the Eastern tongues, 



126 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. These are not accidental nor unimportant coin- 

'■ — cidences. No one, we think, can have followed 

the thread of our argument — can have compared 
the suggestive hints of Genesis with accomplished 
facts of history, descriptions in embryo with 
answering events long after developed and ma- 
tured — without being disposed to ascribe to the 
books containing such hints a character distinct 
from any mere uninspired document. Say that 
the author, owing to the circumstances of the 
times, had peculiar facilities of information handed 
down by tradition : what should have led him, out 
of the mass of facts thus made known to him, to 
make such a remarkable selection? How should 
he have hit upon just the very names and persons 
which have proved, in the result, to tell most 
exactly upon the history of all future times — names 
which fill up an hiatus in our knowledge of the 
past, and to which no other known records have 
given us access? Such antiquarian lore would 
have been remarkable in an author whose professed 
object it was to search into the history of nations* 
But Moses had no such direct object. The gene- 
alogies recorded by him were chiefly with a view 
to the future bearing of countries or kingdoms, 
whose beginnings are there intimated, on the 

in those places, such as Crete, 'Ev ce clol re TIsKaayol. 

Hetruria, &c, where the Pelasgi Horn. Od. T. 175." 

had been. 
»iw \>"\\ \- • . — Stillingfleet, Orig. Sacrcs, b. iii. 

< » A x ch. IV. 



These Etymologies more than fanciful. 127 

history of the Jewish people \ and thereby on the chap. 

history of the whole Christian Church. The in- '- — 

formation, therefore, which we obtain, falls from 
him, as it were, incidentally, and certainly with no 
design to show off superior learning; and yet it 
may be safely pronounced that it supplies a link 
in our knowledge of the past which may at once 
be relied upon as genuine, and has not been sup- 
plied from any other quarter. There may, here 
and there, be room for some difference of construc- 
tion ; there may, perhaps, be a temptation to a 
little fancy in the application of a name ; but the 
general argument rests on far more than a mere 
disquisition on words. We have before us, under- 
lying the brief outline in Genesis, a real relation, 
striking deep into actual history, and capable of 
being verified by it ; we have something to guide 
us through periods not easily explored by other 
lights, yet well according and harmonising with 
all that is really known of succeeding times. Such 
knowledge belongs to a higher order of intelli- 

1 While on this subject of the of Hani and Japhet down to his 

particular scope of these genealo- own time, but only mentions their 

gies of Moses, we may add the children and grandchildren, for 

following additional argument for two or three generations at most, 

the veracity of the whole account : yet he draws down the lineal 

11 The coherence and synchronism pedigree from Shem in the sacred 

of all the parts of the Mosaical line down to his very age, together 

chronology, especially after the with their births and ages ; which 

Mood, bears a most singular tes- are a great evidence of the proba- 

timony to the truth of his history bility of the rest of his account." 

and computation ; for although he — Origination of Mankind, § 2. 

draws not the lineal descendants c. 3. 



128 Veracity of Genesis. 



c l£ p * gence than ordinarily falls to the lot of man. 
Even if the names in the tenth chapter, taken by 
themselves, proved nothing to the purpose; if they 
were too slender a foundation to build anything 
upon, beyond the mere deductions of a fanciful 
etymology; yet, when we find other passages, the 
production of the same pen, serving to unfold the 
allusions contained in that chapter, and, under the 
form of direct prophecies, carrying on the thread of 
those allusions : when further we have the means 
of testing them by the actual and still growing 
fulfilment of these prophecies, there is, in all this, 
evidence that cannot be resisted, of a more than 
natural ability in the person of the narrator, — of 
something which challenges our peculiar attention 
and respect. 

On one of these passages (Gen. ix. 27), the 
learned Mede makes the following remark : " Con- 
sider the blessing of Japhet, That God would enlarge 
him into the tents of Shem, and that Cham should be his 
servant. There hath never yet been a son of Cham 
that hath shaken a sceptre over the head of Japhet. 
Shem hath subdued Japhet, and Japhet subdued 
Shem ; but Cham never subdued either. And this 
fate was it that made Hannibal, a child of Canaan, 
cry out with the amazement of his soul, Agnosco 
fatum Carthaginis ! The Saracens, indeed, once 
spoiled us ; but they were no Chamites, but Ara- 
bians of the seed of Ishmael; and yet because a 
great number of their kind were afterwards of the 



Indications of prophetic Wisdom. 129 

Moors and Chamish Arabians, we see they were in chap. 
a moment shaken off by Japhet, and made to keep 
themselves within their African limits.'' He to 
whom it was given thus to predict the future was, 
assuredly, no common man. To have called the 
persons by name, from whom afterwards the most 
famous places and nations were called, was itself 
no ordinary talent ; but to predict the very for- 
tunes of their families and remotest descendants, 
this was a thing only to be done and accounted 
for by the hypothesis for which we have contended, 
viz. that of a supernatural illumination marking 
out the author as a special organ in the hands of 
Providence for conveying to mankind revelations 
designed for the instruction and benefit of all suc- 
ceeding ages. 



Origin of Language. — M We may explain many of the differences 
and changes in languages, which we become acquainted with, by 
referring to the action of causes of change which still operate. 
But what glossologist will venture to declare that the efficacy of 
such causes has been uniform ; that the influences which mould 
a language, operated formerly with no more efficacy than they 
exercise now ? In the earliest stages of man's career, the revolu- 
tions of language must have been, even by the evidence of the 
theoretical history of language itself, of an order altogether dif- 
ferent from any which have take place within the recent history 
of man. And we may add, that as the early stages of the pro- 
gress of language must have been widely different from those 
later ones of which we can in some measure trace the natural 
causes, we cannot place the origin of language in any point of 
view in which it comes under the jurisdiction of natural causa- 
tion at all." — Whewell, Indications of the Creator, pp. 164, 165. 

K 



130 Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. V. 

Relation of Geology to the Scripture Narrative. 

" Praeclare Aristoteles : Si essent, inquit, qui repente terrain et 
maria ccelimique vidissent : nubium niagnitudinem, ventorumque 
vim cognovissent, adspexissentque solem ; ej usque turn magnitudinem 
pulchritudinemque, turn etiam efhcientiam cognovissent, quod is diem 
efficeret toto coelo luce diffusa ; cum autem terras nox opacasset, turn 
coelum totum cernerent astris distinctum et ornatum, lunaeque lumi- 
num turn crescentis turn senescentis, eorumque omnium ortus et 
occasus, atque in omni astemitate ratos immutabilesque cursus -, 
haec cum viderent, profecto et esse Deos et haec tanta opera Deorum 
esse arbitrarentur." 

Cic. Be Nat. D. lib. ii. c. 37. 

" Every house is builded by some man : but lie tbat built all things 
is God." 

Heb. iii. 4. 

chap. It is no disparagement of geology to speak of it 
as a science yet in its infancy, and which has not 
attained the same fixity and stability with the 
older sciences. Considering, indeed, the difficulties 
through which it has struggled, the lateness of the 
discoveries on which it is founded, and the exten- 
sive areas of observation necessary to a due gene- 
ralisation of its laws, it is only surprising that it 
should have made so great a progress, and that so 
much of agreement as to general principles should 
already subsist among the various schools of its 
professors. Yet, as every day brings fresh dis- 



v 



Natural History not the Design of Scripture. 131 

coveries, the conclusions of yesterday are continu- chap. 
ally shifting, or at least are subject to considerable 
modification ; and we find ourselves dealing with 
principles which cannot yet offer any certain 
resting-place to the mind of the inquirer. 1 It is 
the more necessary that we should seek to avoid 
any false light from supposed scriptural allusions, 
which may only tend in the minds of some to 
involve this science in still greater obscurity ; 
while with others it may have the still more mis- 
chievous effect of bringing the Scripture itself 
into disrepute, by making it answer for our own 
arbitrary and perhaps ill-grounded suppositions. 
Now it may well be doubted whether Scripture 
was intended to teach geology at all. 2 At least 
we may be sure that, whatever light it may indi- 
rectly throw on this or any other secular science, 



1 Dr. Kalisch, in a recent pectation of finding therein his- 
leamed Commentary on Genesis, torical information respecting all 
taking an opposite point of de- the operations of the Creator in 
parture, — assuming, that is to say, times and places with which the 
the perfection of geology and the hmnan race has no concern. As 
imperfection "of the Mosaic cos- reasonably might we object that 
mogony, — naturally finds contra- the Mosaic history is imperfect 
dictions where there are none, because it makes no specific men- 
arid seems quite unnecessarily tion of the satellites of Jupiter or 
afraid of any attempt, however the rings of Saturn, as feel dis- 
countenanced by men as learned appointment at not finding in it 
as himself, to reconcile the two. details of geology, which may be 
See Kalisch's Commentary, Gen. fit matter for an encyclopaedia of 
Introd. pp. 1, 2, 43 — 52. science, but are foreign to the 

2 "The disappointment of those objects of a Tolume intended only 
who look for a detailed account to be a guide of religious belief 
of geological phenomena in the and moral conduct." — Buckland, 
Bible, rests on a gratuitous ex- Bridgeivater Treatise, vol. i. p. 14. 

k 2 



132 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, it can only be incidental and subordinate to its 

■ '— main object, which is clearly of another and a 

higher kind. The question is an open one, how 
far it should be required, in a book professing to 
contain a Divine revelation, that where it diverges 
into physical details those details should be in 
perfect accordance with other known truth; or, 
how far it might be expedient to adopt a mere 
popular phraseology on these particular points. 
Thus : where, in the first chapter of Genesis, men- 
tion is made of " the stars," and among them of 
"two great lights," and "of a greater and a lesser 
light," it is but too obvious to see that the phrase 
is accommodated to the natural impressions of the 
spectator; and the question immediately arises as 
to this mode of speaking being the exception or 
the rule. Be this decided as it may, the main 
point assuredly is, that, however it may have been 
necessary to reduce ideas to the level of ordinary 
apprehension by clothing them in popular language, 
it is our first business to seize the great ruling 
thoughts, and to gather the lessons which are 
principally intended to be conveyed, even as we 
would separate the precious kernel from the husk. 
Providing for this, we should be extremely cau- 
tious how we strain the sacred text, and make it 
answer for any crude conceptions, any hasty con- 
clusions of our own. A right and reverent appre- 
ciation of its main object is the proper safeguard 
against any such error. It is the first thing re- 



Real Design of the Revelation. 133 

quired for obtaining the true point of view from char 

which to contemplate the geological bearings of the : — 

narrative in Genesis. 

The ascription, then, of all created matter, and 
of all the forms of it, to the one true God, was 
clearly the main object of the writer. Contrasted 
and confronted with this great idea we must place 
before our minds the prevailing errors which were 
abroad, and with which Moses had to contend. 
We must remember how divinity had begun to 
be ascribed to the various forms of nature, to the 
"greater lights " of the sun and moon, and to all the 
beauteous constellations which sparkle in the hea- 
vens, and appear like presiding spirits to the earth ; 
— how the worship of universal nature had spread 
everywhere ; — how kings and heroes had been dei- 
fied, and men paid divine honours to their fellow- 
men. It was the work of Moses to demolish this 
material Pantheon, and to build upon its ruins the 
foundation of a purer worship, the acknowledgment 
of the one supreme Creator. The whole world was 
to be exhibited as His temple, made for His express 
service, and peopled by various gradations of crea- 
tures, each in his capacity fitted to show forth His 
praise. Man, especially, was Nature's high priest, 
alone among the creatures capable of giving dis- 
tinct and intelligent utterance to the praises of the 
Omnipotent. That all this was to be expressed in 
language wholly remote from the conceptions of 
the age, and adapted rather to the precision and 

K 3 



134 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAE, refinement of modern science, is so irrational a 
! — requirement, that it could only, one would think, 
be resorted to as the last refuge of some precon- 
ceived but weak and untenable theory. The very 
difficulty of finding appropriate terms might, 
indeed, have been the reason why the account is 
so brief and restricted as it is. It would certainly 
have been interesting to know more ; to have had 
more revealed to us, specially, about other intelli- 
gences in the universe, of whose creation we have 
here absolutely nothing related. It might have 
seemed neither undesirable nor unprofitable to 
man to have learnt something of other orders in 
creation, more nearly resembling himself; and 
whether there be any and what superior beings to 
him, or how far he was destined to grow into a 
likeness and equality with the highest. As it is, 
these points are left an utter blank in the record ; 
and all we can do is to form conjectures upon 
them, borrowed from the best lights we have. 
Looking only at Genesis, and measuring man by 
the sphere which he occupies, to some it has ap- 
peared that as the earth, his habitation, is a mere 
speck in infinite space, the position of man, its 
chief inhabitant, cannot be far removed above that 
of the caterpillar which crawls on its surface. 
Melancholy, but happily narrow and one-sided, 
view of the question ! A wider and deeper con- 
sideration might lead us to reflect by what rare 
and extraordinary gifts and capacities man is dis- 



Man's Place in the System of the Universe. 135 

tinguished from all the inferior creatures ; how he chap. 

was made in the image and reflexion of his Maker ; '— 

how he may hold converse with angels, and is 
fitted to rise ultimately, if he have never yet 
reached, to an equality with them 1 ; how, in his 
very outward position (as it seems, at least, to the 
eye of the observer) there is something correspond- 
ing to this innate and intrinsic superiority. For, 
look at the centrality, so to speak, of the earth 
among the surrounding planets : the subordination, 
not only of earthly things, but, in a measure, of 
the very heavenly bodies themselves to the use 
and convenience of earth's noblest inhabitant and 
lord. From these and such like considerations we 
should surely rise to far higher and nobler concep- 
tions of the original and ultimate destination of 
the human family. Man's foundation may be in 
the dust, and his days as it were a span long ; but 
look at the almost endless capacity of improvement, 
"the thoughts which" even now " wander through 
eternity," the upward look, the still more upward 
spirit, the far-seeing stretch of mind, the bound- 
less range of imagination, the aspirations of the 
heart to a Supreme Good, unsatisfied by anything 
here below ! These may not be the thoughts that 
are uppermost in the minds of most men, who 
turn to Genesis for a solution of great physical 
phenomena ; but we believe them to have been in 

1 See the expression in St. Luke, xx. 36 : ladyyzXoi yap dot, nal 
v\oi elai rov Qtov. 

K 4 



136 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, the breast of Moses when he indited that book. 
v. 
: — We believe them to have been the great puzzle 

with all the sages and wiser men of that day. 
But on the sacred penman himself we doubt not 
they were prominently and deeply impressed. 
They struggled within him for a solution more 
complete than it was permitted even to him to 
attain. Compared with this he cared but little for 
the curiosities of the outer world : it was not, in- 
deed, the age when philosophy was yet taking the 
turn of a nice physical investigation. The want of 
this, which is so much the pride and delight of 
the present day, was, perhaps, then in a measure 
compensated for, by a more intense admiration of 
Nature as she appeared in her outward garb. If 
there was less acquaintance with the secret powers 
of Nature, if the reason was less exercised upon 
her laws, if less of that refined pleasure was 
experienced which now springs from the study of 
those laws and the curious discoveries of natural 
science ; — there was that other pleasure, peculiar to 
the youth-time of the earth's present economy, of 
a more vivid impression on the senses continually 
kept up by the steadier and more congenial glow 
of the climate, the greater clearness of the air, and 
the fresher beauty of the landscape. Pearls and 
jewels, so much more abundant in the East, would 
have feasted the eyes of that generation, and created 
as much pleasure in the possession and admiration 
of them, as the philosopher finds at the present time 



Creation revealed under the form of a Vision. 137 

in his collection of rare specimens of stones and chap. 
pebbles. If there is more satisfaction and pride 
from the labour of collecting, this was balanced then 
by the greater profusion and greater brilliancy to 
the eye of the beholder. 

Let us figure, then, to our minds this first thought 
of Moses, to vindicate the worship and authority of 
the one true God, and to represent man as foremost 
among the creatures who were made by His hand. 
Add to this the no less pressing want and desire of 
his soul, to search yet deeper into the mind of the 
Spirit, and to know by what means it was destined 
hereafter to accomplish man's promised restoration 
after the Fall, by the chosen seed of the woman, 
how the great purposes of his being were yet to be 
realised, and the capacities for good to take effect. 
We are not about to deny that there was an inten- 
tion, besides this, to dwell somewhat on the phy- 
sical ; but in proportion as we endeavour to realise 
the spiritual, we doubt not our estimate of the 
other will be more correct and true. Taking our 
own stand on the same height with Moses, we shall 
the more easily follow him along the sacred per- 
spective. Kapt, as we may imagine him, in 
heavenly contemplation, he is in the attitude best 
adapted for receiving the Divine communications. 
And now a great vision 1 appears to have been given 

1 It scarcely seems necessary to to Moses at the time here spoken 
justify the use of the term vision, of, to enable him to record the 
in describing the revelation given acts of Creation, Unless we adopt 



138 



Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. 
V. 



him. Lines of sight, as it were, stretching in illi- 
mitable length from eternity, and running parallel 
towards him from the mystic beginning of all things, 
as they at length converge to his eye in their first 
measurable dimensions, convey the image of an 
earth preparing for the use and reception of man. 
It was an earth, be it specially observed, not neces- 
sarily at that time first created, but just then in 
a state of preparation for a new inhabitant, — an 



the extreme opinion of supposing 
a literal and verbal inspiration, 
how else than by vision can he 
have been made to conceive of 
things buried in so remote a past ? 
It seems but the natural language, 
in contemplating such a revelation, 
to say with Coleridge : " Let us 
carry us back in spirit to the 
mysterious week, — the teeming 
work-days of the Creation, — as 
they rose in vision before the eyes 
of the inspired historian." — Aids 
to Reflection. Indeed, the best 
writers on Inspiration will tell us 
that oftentimes in no other way 
could the human faculties have 
been employed to comnrunicate 
Divine revelations at all, except 
by "visions" and imaginative 
pictures presented to the mind; 
unless we are to suppose those 
faculties altogether superseded 
and suspended, and no use of them 
made, in receiving or imparting 
the supernatural information con- 
veyed. Thus the " seer " was the 
very title of the prophet (1 Sam. 
ix. 9 ; 1 Chron. xxix. 29). St. Paul 
says, " I will come to visions and 
revelations j" and St. John is bid 



"to write what he had seen:" 
"he bare record of the word of 
God .... and of all things that 
he scnv." (2 Cor. xii. 1 ; Rev. i. 
2, 19.) The following is the re- 
mark of a judicious writer : — 
"When the ideas to be con- 
veyed related to things which 
surpass the bounds of human ex- 
perience, it is plain that ordinary 
language must fail to convey to 
others what was thus revealed. 
It was necessary, therefore, that 
such symbols or visible repre- 
sentations should be moulded, as 
it were, for the occasion, which 
would best conform to those ideas. 
.... And in the case of such vi- 
sions, as in cases of natural poetic 
effusions, the imaginative faculty 
of the prophets naturally comes 
into play, — the Divine Spirit 
guiding the imagination, while 
clothingthe ideas with appropriate 
symbols." — From Lee's Inspira- 
tion of Holy Scripture (Dublin, 
1854), Lect. iv. We may refer the 
reader to a well-reasoned chapter 
on the same subject in Hugh 
Miller's Testimony of the Rocks, 
ch. iv. 



The first beginning of " Light" unrecorded. 139 

inhabitant of whose existence, prior to the time chap. 

spoken of, neither the pages of inspiration, nor the : — 

records of nature appear to give any intimation. 
Following at present the inspired record only, we 
should say that everything is made to point for- 
ward and bear directly upon man, as (next to the 
Omnipotent) the real hero of the scene. It is with 
a view to man's uses, that each day's work, as we 
pass along in the narrative, introduces to us suc- 
cessively the flower and fruit of the field, the cattle 
and creeping thing, the fowl of the air and the fish 
of the sea; and further, it was to disabuse man of 
any false notions of creature-worship, that every 
creature is made to fall into his place as part of the 
mere furniture of the dwelling thus made for man. 
This, we believe, is the only clue to the right con- 
ception of these opening scenes of sacred writ. It 
is not to exclude or to deny other stages of crea- 
tion than that which accompanied and ushered in 
the first appearance of man upon the earth. It is 
not that the glorious light had never before dawned 
on other orders of created beings, till on the " first 
day God said, Let there be light, and there was 
light." God, we are expressly told, had from the 
beginning " clothed Himself with light as with a 
garment." He ever " dwelleth in the light unap- 
proachable " to mortal eye, " whom no man hath 
seen or can see." Nor, again, have we a right to 
bring all the stars, much less the angels also, ac- 
cording to a favourite tradition of some, into the 



140 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, work of the fourth day. What we do see is, that 

'- — by a fresh creative, or, it may be, fresh moulding 

and formative act, the face of Nature is garnished 
anew, and its wide domain fresh furnished for a 
new inhabitant. The fairest and brightest forms 
are but a portion of that furniture. " Thou madest 
us, and not we ourselves," might each exclaim. 
They have a work to perform, a place assigned 
them, for the service and convenience of man ; — but 
all in obedience to the laws of the Ceeatok. The 
skill of Deity is impressed upon them ; but they have 
no divinity in themselves. Birds, fishes, beasts, sun, 
moon, and stars, — these all might, in an after-day 
of decline, be invested with imaginary Divine 
honours, and figure among the false divinities of 
a degenerate age, but they are here presented to us 
in their only true view and position, as the crea- 
tures of God's hand and the dumb unconscious 
ministers of His will. We propose to enter more 
fully in a following chapter into the several par- 
ticulars of the interesting account in Genesis. 
And among them will be embraced what concerns 
the higher and more spiritual, and not the mere 
material view of the creation of man. But, taking 
for our guide the sacred narrative itself, we hope 
to give at least a due proportion to the more 
material part, and to follow out whatever of in- 
terest to the scientific, and specially to the geolo- 
gical reader, may occur. But before we do so, it 
may conduce to the clearness of the argument, 



Main Conclusions. 141 

if we begin by enunciating some principal conclu- chap. 
sions to which, on this branch of the subject, we : 

shall be led, and which may serve afterwards as a 
kind of general principles to guide us in any future 
inquiries. It should be borne in mind that errors 
on the side of exaggerating any literal intimations 
(or supposed intimations) of the inspired text may 
be as serious, and may lead in the end to as false 
conclusions, as the opposite error of ignoring or 
contradicting such intimations altogether. It re- 
quires no little care and discretion to avoid encum- 
bering the statements of Scripture with false glosses 
of our own, and so charging upon them the re- 
sponsibility of the crude and imperfect, or, it may 
be, the erroneous conceptions, to which our own 
imaginations may have led us. The following, then, 
are the chief points which will occupy our attention, 
and which appear to offer the best solution to the 
well-known difficulties that belong to this portion 
of Holy Writ. 

1. To say something, first, of the whole title of 
the chapter (Gen. i.), as it stands in our English 
version, viz. The Ceeation. A distinction seems 
allowed by most Hebrew scholars between the 
words for " creating " and "making." The latter 
word may sometimes be used indifferently for 
the former ; but the former has the stronger and 
more emphatic sense, and implies & first production 
of a something not existing before. Accordingly 
it is the word eminently employed in the first verse 



142 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, of Genesis, and standing at the head of all that 

'■ — account which is vulgarly called the Creation. 

Nor does it seem without design that the same 
word is not again repeated, till verses 21 and 27, 
evidently marking out the creatures there named 
for special notice ; while in chapter ii. verse 3, the 
distinction is expressly recognised and confirmed in 
the phrase " all His work which God created and 
made. 1 '' From other Scriptures it would appear — 
what, indeed, seems naturally associated with our 
idea of an Almighty Creator — that the first matter 
was " created " out of nothing. 1 Not so everything 
that was "made." 2 From the change of terms, as 
well as from the reason of the thing, it would seem 
that the subsequent works were of the nature of 
some new forms and combinations of elements 
previously existing, rather than absolutely fresh 
creations. It is not, however, our intention, in 
what follows, to press this distinction beyond due 
bounds. 3 God might in an instant of time have 

1 See 2 Pet. iii. 5 ; Heb. xi. 3. 3 Compare the statement of the 

2 " ' Creavit,' soil, die primo ex learned Regius Professor of He- 
nihilo, ut ' faceret ' ex eo opera se- brew in Oxford: "After having con- 
quentiiun dieram. — Vetus auctor, tinually re-read and studied this 
Neheman., apud Fagium, ad Gen. account; I can come to no other re- 
ii. 3. David Kimchi, ad Is. xliii. 7: suit than that the words ' created ' 
" Creavi eum, formavi eum, atque and 'made ' are synonymous (al- 
feci eum." Kimchi sic explicat: though the former is to us the 
" ' creavi eum/ i.e. produxi eum de stronger of the two), and that, be- 
nihilo ad esse. Deiti ' formavi eum/ cause they are so constantly inter- 
eo quod feci eum existere disposi- changed ; as, Gen. i. 21, ' God 
time formce. Postremo ( feci eum/ created great whales ; ' ver. 25, 
hoc est, disposui seu ordinavi eum." ' God made the beast of the earth ;' 
Vid. plura apud Leigh, Critic. Sa- ver. 26, ' Let us make man ; ' ver. 
era ad voc. &02. 27, 'So God created man.' At the 



Created and made." 



143 



called into being the first elements of matter ; — 
and from these might have been wrought all sub- 
sequent forms and creations in nature. But on 
these matters we have no clear revelation to guide 
us; nor can we without irreverence prescribe the 
manner or the limits of the Divine agency. For 
aught we know, there may be yet new elements 
produced; and there is certainly every appearance 
in nature, that creation after creation has been 
going on down to the present epoch, which 
brought man upon the stage. It will be well if 



CHAP. 

v. 



sanie time it is very probable that 
802 C created ' ), as being the 
stronger word, was selected to 
describe the first production of 
the tieaven and the earth. The 
point ; however, upon which the 
interpretation of the first chapter 
of Genesis appears to me really 
to turn, is, whether the two first 
verses are merely a summary 
statement of what is related in 
detail in the rest of the chapter, 
and a sort of introduction to it ; 
or whether they contain an ac- 
count of an act of creation 

Many of the Fathers supposed 
the two first verses of Genesis to 
contain an account of a distinct 
and prior act of creation : some, 
as Augustine, Theodoret, and 
others, that of the creation of 
matter -, others, that of the ele- 
ments ; others, again (and they 
the most numerous), imagine that 
not these visible heavens, but 
what they think to be called 
elsewhere the ' highest heavens/ 



the 'heaven of heavens,' are here 
spoken of, — our visible heavens 
being related to have been created 
on the second day. Petavius re- 
gards the light as the only act of 
creation of the first day ; con- 
sidering the two first verses as a 
summary of the account of crea- 
tion which was about to follow, 
and a general declaration that all 
things were made by God. Epi- 
scopius, again, and others, thought 
that the creation and fall of the 
bad angels took place in the in- 
terval here spoken of: and mis- 
placed as such speculations are, 
still they seem to show that it is 
natural to suppose that a con- 
siderable interval may have taken 
place between the creation related 
in the first verse of Genesis and 
that of which an account is given 
in the third and following verses." 
— From note by Dr. Pusey to 
Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, 
vol. i. pp. 23, 24. 



144 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, the highly interesting dispute on the subject 

'■ — of the Mosaic " days," intimately connected with 

this of the " Creation," should be always carried 
on in the same calm and impartial spirit in which 
it was at first entertained by that late eminent 
Professor of Geology, Dr. Buckland. Though 
not himself disposed to adopt the wider acceptation 
of the term, he adds the opinion that u there is no 
sound critical or theological objection to the in- 
terpretation of the word ' day,' as meaning a long 
period;" but that there is "no necessity for such 
extension, in order to reconcile the text of Genesis 
with physical appearances, if it can be shown that 
the time indicated by the phenomena of geology 
may be found in the undefined interval following 
the announcement of the first verse." Of this 
same opinion we find Dr. Chalmers, Professor 
Sedgwick, &c, and moreover, " that the creation 
of the component matter of the earth and heavens 
having been announced in verse 1, the phenomena 
of geology, like those of astronomy, are passed over 
in silence, and the narrative proceeds at once to 
details of the actual creation which have more 
immediate reference to man." 

2. Next follows the order in which "the Creation" 
is described as taking place. Here, it might be 
imagined, comes in at once the question of the six 
days. But this appears much too hastily assumed. 
May not the real clue to the order of God's works 
be something quite different? — something in- 



Antiquity of the Earth. 



145 



dependent altogether of the six days ? l Suppose chap. 
that instead of six days, there had been only one, : — 



1 It is not at all intended by 
anything here remarked; to speak 
disparagingly of the interest that 
must ever be felt in the question 
as to the literal meaning of the 
" clays/' and whether they imply 
the natural periods so called, or 
those much longer ones which 
might answer to the formation of 
the great geological strata of the 
earth. We have, in fact, reserved 
the further discussion of this point 
to a later chapter. Following the 
authorities that have been already 
named, — Buckland, Chalmers, 
Sedgwick, — the natural theory 
has been ably supported in a 
pleasing manual on the subject 
by the Rev. James Gray, TJie 
Earth's Antiquity in harmony ivith 
the Mosaic Record of Creation. 
He takes the view, "that the first 
verse in Genesis is not to be under- 
stood according to the currently 
entertained notion, as merely 
giving a summary account of the 
«/ifer-recorded work of the six 
days, but is an independent pro- 
position, enunciating the Chea- 
Tioisr, primordial as to time, — the 
reference being retrospective ra- 
ther than prospective." It is not 
without satisfaction that we quote 
from this author the following 
eloquent tribute to the wonderful 
discoveries, and improved tone, of 
science in the present day: — " The 
philosophers of the present day are 
not, like too many of a former age, 
proud in their, boast of an empty 
scepticism. Science has now dis- 
closed too much to satisfy a truly 



enlarged mind with any agency 
less than Omnipotency; the ar- 
cana of Nature have been of late 
too widely laid open to allow any 
correctly reasoning powers to as- 
cribe her operations — so various 
in action, yet so harmonious in 
design — to other than an Al- 
mighty Architect. The proud and 
sceptical spirit would seem now 
to be obliged to succumb under 
the potency of the Divine Majesty 
bearing down upon it from Na- 
ture's storehouses on every side ; 
for while the telescope has brought 
to view wider and wider ranges of 
God's empire, and the microscope 
has unveiled the most hidden cor- 
ners thereof, and each and every 
part has disclosed worlds of crea- 
tion unknown before, the cul- 
minating point has been achieved 
by the delving instruments of the 
geologist. Penetrating with these 
into the earth's solid masses, he 
has manifested that, through time 
past immeasurable, worlds upon 
worlds of creations have been 
evolving upon our own little globe, 
and the majesty of the Eternal 
been displayed on successive sur- 
faces of this earth during ages 
long anterior to its traverse by any 
human footsteps. Man therefore 
now, in this newly opened volume, 
has continually set before him a 
palpable memorial of the immen- 
sity of his God. ' The very 
stones ' do indeed ' cry out,' and 
speak to him this voice." — Gray's 
Antiquity of the Earth, chap. iv. 
p. 211, second edition. 



146 Veracity of Genesis, 

chap, is there not still a broad scale laid down, which 

v. . 
allows for any conceivable length of progress, how- 
ever slow and orderly the stages of it might have 
been, and with whatever subordination to general 
laws impressed upon them from the beginning, 
they may have been carried on? We merely give 
the result, which we purpose tracing out more in de- 
tail in its proper place ; but in the very assertion that 
God in the beginning " created Heaven and Earth" 
and observing, in the details which follow, that 
the scene is confined chiefly, if not wholly, to the 
" earth" the thought must needs be suggested of an 
immeasurable series of creative works. For that 
" Heaven " here means more than the " heaven " 
of verse 8 ("And God called the firmament 
heaven".), we think abundantly clear from the 
context in which it stands, and from comparison 
of other passages. " Thou, Lord, in the beginning 
hast laid the foundation of the earth ; and the 
heavens are the works of Thine hands l ; — " Heaven 
is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what 
house will ye build me ? saith the Lord." 2 " By the 
word of the Lord the heavens were of old, and the 
earth, standing out of the water and in the water." 3 
No one will say that in these passages the term 
" heaven " is to be restricted to that outer fir- 
mament which is related (verse 6-8) to have been 
the work of the second day. It only remains, that 

1 Ps. cii. 25, quoted Heb. i. 11. 2 Is. lxvi. 1, quoted Acts, vii. 49. 

3 2 Pet. iii. 5. 



Probable gradations in the structure of the" Heavens . " 147 

we refer it to that glorious expanse of which the chap. 
Psalmist exclaims 1 , " When I consider thy Heavens, 
the work of Thy hands, the moon and the stars, 
which Thou hast ordained ; what is man, that Thou 
art mindful of him? or the son of man that Thou 
regardest him?" Assigning, then, the same sense 
to the word in the passage before us, how marked 
is the transition which follows ; when, having 
named this Heaven and the earth together, he now 
turns and confines himself to the earth alone ! 
" And the earth was without form and void." But 
in what is omitted (and, as it seems, purposely 
omitted), we cannot help thinking what an infinite 
series of creative wonders might have been going 
on through all the antecedent, but unrecorded ages ! 
If the structure of the heavens was in any degree 
as elaborate and measured in time and order, as 
that recorded of the earth in its last stage of 
preparation for man, what a wide and majestic 
field of contemplation opens out to our view in the 
simple announcement " God created the Heavens ! " 
It was an ancient tradition of the Kabbis, that 
there were seven things created before the six days 
of Genesis; and a still more popular belief, that 
"the light" of the first day was no other than 
that of the sun itself. 2 Might they not with more 



1 Ps. yiii. 3, 4. stantive form of the planets, per- 

2 "We may take thus early an fectly answers the phenomenon 
opportunity of stating that visible recorded in the 3rd verse. La- 
luniinosity, rather than the sub- place declares the probability of the 

l 2 



148 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, reason have referred the sun to a still more ancient 

Y. 

— '- — date ? There seems nothing in the words of Moses 
to prevent our assigning a much more remote 
origin to the solar and other systems, than would 
appear on the surface of the account. Worlds 
upon worlds, and creations upon creations, rise up 
before the mind, as we pass that " Heaven " in 
review, which Moses couples in the same mention 
with the " earth." But because, as the place of our 
habitation, it more nearly concerns us than the 
other planets, he dismisses these and confines our 
attention to the earth alone, and all its furniture 
and inhabitants, with so much only of the disposi- 
tion of the heavenly bodies as bears immediately 
upon ourselves. This, then, is the order. " Heaven 
and earth," i. e. the original and elementary 
matter of all things, is " created " first, probably 
in an instant of time : — " Heaven " itself, with 
the infinite number and variety of its orbs, with 
all its possible inhabitants and appurtenances, 
follows next, — each moulded, as the earth was 
afterwards in its season, according to the will 
of the great Creator: — next, the earth, sleeping, 
perhaps, for a time, in a semi-liquid form, through 
primeval ages of comparative vacuity, but even- 
tually the seat of something noble and excellent in 
its kind; then passing through many a successive 
phase of animate and inanimate nature, till it 
becomes the appropriate residence of man. Here 

existence in nature " of opaque in as great number as stars." — 
tas considerable and probably Sijst, d, Monde, 1. iv. 



Alternating periods of " Darkness and Light." 149 

was the great scale and order of creation, to which chap. 

. > v. 

is appended the much fuller detail of the six days 

work, — a detail, however, not simply terminating 
in itself, but seeming also to reflect an important 
light upon antecedent epochs, somewhat similar in 
character, though less intimately related to the 
human species. 

3. Among the more prominent passages in this 
last creation, is that where it is said, " Let there be 
light, and there was light." At its first formation 
there is every reason to think that the earth sub- 
sisted, as we have before observed, in a semi-liquid 
condition, a fiery fluid at the centre and boiling 
waters separated from the fire by a solid but slowly 
formed crust of rocky substance at the surface. 
From the strong internal heat hardening from 
below what was liquid above, would arise a dense 
seething of the superficial waters, a profound misti- 
ness would envelope the earth, so as quite to de- 
* 

stroy the reflecting power of our globe, and render 
it to the outward eye an almost opaque mass. 
Through how many ages this enveloping mist may 
have continued, we have not the least means of 
ascertaining. The clearing away of it, however, 
(whether we are to imagine this done once for all 
on the first of the six days, or whether such a 
clearance had from the beginning alternated with 
long periods of preceding darkness,) could only 
have been effected by a process indefinitely slow, 
or through the immediate interposition of Omni- 

i. 3 



150 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, potence, by a fiat as absolute and wonderful, as 

! — though the light itself were then first called into 

being, and thrown upon a universe of primeval 
darkness. The act, therefore, is expressed in terms 
universally admired for their terse sublimity, nor 
could any have been found more thoroughly ex- 
pressive, had it been intended to describe the 
original and actual creative word. And we see 
nothing lost to the dignity and sublimity of the 
expression, " Let there be light, and there was 
light." l In either view of it we may take further 
into consideration what is now discovered to be the 
constitution of the source of light to this earth, viz. 
of the aSWz, whose light (supposing the body of it 
to have existed before) either then first struggled 
through the mist, or entered upon a new phasis 
of his shining. An alteration in the nebulous 
atmosphere, which is now understood to form 
the inner coat of the sun's atmosphere, might 
have been employed to produce this effect, and 
that, either singly by its own operation, or in 
conjunction with what has been just surmised 
to have been the condition of the earth's surface 
contemporaneously with it. By some such cause, 
or by the union of both, the phenomena in Genesis 
admit of a natural and easy solution. There is 
nothing in the expression 2 , " there was light " (or 

1 A passage wliicli excited the giver of the Jews. See Longi- 

aclmiration of the heathen Longi- nus de Sublim. § ix. 

nus ; who at the same time 2 "I learn from Professor Pusey 

speaks of Moses as the Law- that the words, "Let there be 



Pre-existence of Light. 



151 



"light was "), that necessarily implies creation for 
the first time — any more than when it is said (for 
the words are precisely the same in the original, 
Gen. v. 5), " Evening was and morning was." In 
this latter connection they occur repeatedly through- 
out the chapter ; and, as it is obvious that creation 
could not have been intended at each repetition of 
" evening and morning," so neither can we argue 
that it was necessarily intended in the earlier pas- 
sages where the expression first occurs, whether 
at verse 5, or in the passage under our considera- 
tion and which first tells us " there was light." x 



CHAP. 
V. 



light " (Gen. i. 3), by no means 
necessarily imply that light had 
never existed before. They may 
speak only of the substitution of 
light for darkness upon the sur- 
face of this our planet. Whether 
light had existed before in other 
parts of God's creation, and had 
existed on this earth before the 
darkness described in ver. 2, is 
foreign to the purpose of the nar- 
rative." — Auckland, p. 26. 

1 It may not be uninteresting 
to fortify thus early our general 
position, by adducing the follow- 
ing illustrations from other works 
on Genesis. Gray, on verse 2 of 
Genesis, says : u Such a disturbed 
condition of terrestrial things is 
here narrated, as we should na- 
turally conclude would be found 
after the violent action of one or 
other of those grand disturbing 
agents, either of fire by earth- 
quakes, or of water by deluges, 
which we know to be Nature's 



ordinary mighty destroyers and 
renovators on the earth . . . 
a state following upon the last 
catastrophe anterior to the period 
of its Divinely recorded reorgan- 
isation for the abode of man." — 
Earth's Antiquity, pp. 120, 144. 
u Wrapped in its watery garment, 
and enveloped in thick darkness, 
without a living creature of the 
animal or vegetable world within 
its precincts, a dark, untenanted, 
watery waste, is the simple con- 
dition of our planet, when intro- 
duced to our notice in the book of 
Moses. . . . The tepid waters 
on its surface, occasioned by the 
central heat, at this early period of 
its existence must have sent up a 
constant stream or volume of va- 
pour, which rested above the 
atmosphere, and acted as a screen 
between the sun and the earth, 
until dissolved by the gradual 
cooling down of the elements." — 
M Causland, pp. 147, 192. 



1.4 



152 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. 4. Though allusion has been already made to 
'- — the next particular which seems worthy of obser- 
vation, it may deserve a separate and distinct 
notice, viz. that the creation of the body of the 
sun, and indeed of its illuminating power, need 
not necessarily be deferred to the fourth day. 
If we reserve for the work of that day such a 
fresh modification of the light of the sun, as 
should make it serve the purpose there indicated, 
the description in the sacred narrative would seem 
sufficiently carried out. To this some have not 
unreasonably added the idea of a new rate of 
revolution of the earth, by which the days might 
have become shortened to their present dimensions, 
having previously, and during the slower rates of 
revolution, been of much longer duration. We 
should thus have a sufficient explanation of the 
fourth day, without having recourse to the almost 
untenable position of ascribing the actual creation 
of the great central orb in our planetary system to 
the work of that day. 

5. We have already remarked upon the distinc- 
tion between the terms " creating " and " making." 
But indeed it may be doubted, whether the work 
of creation ever ceased, till it placed man upon the 
stage, or whether it be not rather in exercise to 
the present day. It is the conclusion of the most 
eminent geologists, founded, as they consider it, on 
the undoubted indications of nature, that there 



Successive Creations. 153 

have been successive epochs of creation, separated chap. 
by indefinite intervals of time, and marked and 
ushered in by phenomena of depression and eleva- 
tion of the Earth's surface, when new forms of 
life, whether by sea or land, have appeared and 
flourished, till, by a similar catastrophe, these 
again have yielded to others which have flourished 
through the like long periods. They recognise 
such epochs, partly because of the enormous revo- 
lutions required to bring about and heap together 
the successive strata which form the crust of the 
earth, and partly from observing the continually 
shifting forms of animal and vegetable life by which 
those strata are distinguished. We see nothing in 
the text of Scripture to militate against such a 
conclusion. On the contrary, we start with the 
supposition that the detailed account in Genesis is 
that of the last adaptation of the soil and climate 
of the earth to the use and habitation of man ; and 
we see no inconsistency in allowing room for many 
previous adaptations, according to the fashion and 
organism of the creatures who were in turn to 
occupy the terrestrial habitation. Our quarrel 
with geologists is not for pointing out the distinct 
traces of such epochs, but for ever hesitating to 
confess in each of them the manifest tokens of 
creative skill and power, similar in every respect 
to that recorded in Genesis as introductory to the 
formation of man. And how any one should deny 



154 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, us the liberty of asserting more such creations 1 

: — than one, because they are not actually recorded in 

Scripture, we confess ourselves unable to understand. 
There being one recorded instance of an entirely 
fresh disposition of the earth's surface, so far from 
precluding, rather tends to confirm the supposition 
of there having been others, of which no record 
remains, save the distinct traces which are dis- 
cernible in the physical condition of the earth. 
We seem perfectly at liberty to entertain the belief 
that such epochs there really were, since the first 
creation of matter. Old creations might have 
perished, and been " emptied out " as it were, to 
make way for new. The earth thus " empty and 
void " for a time, and passing through its period of 
murky steam, — again at the bidding of the omnific 
Word, gave birth to the creatures best suited to its 
condition. If old species should reappear, inter- 
mixed with the new, it might either be by a fresh 
creative act, or by some succession kept up in 
places that might have escaped the general de- 
vastation. The new races would, however, pre- 
dominate, and would continue to perform the parts 
assigned them till some new revolution again 

1 Quite in accordance with this the surface of the globe was pass- 
view, we have the high authority ing from one condition to another, 
of Sir R. Murchison for saying, whole races of animals — all the 
u Geology, modem as she is among groups adapted to the physical 
the sciences, has revealed to us, conditions in which they lived — 
that during immeasureable pe- were successively created^ lived their 
riods, long anterior to the crea- appointed time, and perished/ 7 — 
tion of the human race, and while Murchison' 's Siluria, ed. 3, p. 4. 



Phases of Waste and Revival. 

swept them away. Each would in turn have 
issued from the parent earth, alike the work of 
the same great " Spirit," who from first to last 
"moved," — i.e. hovered with the watchfulness of 
parental care, " on the face of the waters." And 
the same terms would be applicable to each new 
phase of waste and of reconstruction, as are in fact 
applied by the sacred penman to that last revolu- 
tion on the surface of our planet which issued in 
the creation of man. " The earth was without 
form [empty] and void ; and darkness was upon 
the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters. And God 
said, Let there be light, and there was light." 1 



155 



« 

CHAP. 
V. 



1 When great geologians have 
been contented to see in Gene- 
sis the non-recognition of their 
science, while at the same time 
they find certainly no contradiction 
to it, others may at least wait in 
patience till greater light can be 
thrown upon the subject. Pro- 
fessor Sedgwick nobly remarks: 
" TJie Bible instructs us, that man, 
and other living things, have been 
placed but a few years upon the 
earth, and the physical monuments 
of the world bear witness to the 
same truth. If the astronomer 
tells us of myriads of worlds not 
ten of in the sacred records, the 
t, in like manner, proves 
(not by arguments from analogy, 
but by the incontrovertible evi- 
dence of physical phenomena) 
that there were former conditions 



of our planet, separated from each 
other by vast intervals of time, 
during which man, and the other 
creatures of his own date, had not 
been called into being. Periods 
such as these belong not, there- 
fore, to the moral history of our 
race, and come neither within the 
letter nor the spirit of revelation. 
Between the first creation of the 
earth and that day in which it 
pleased God to place man upon it, 
who shall dare to define the in- 
terval ? On this question Scrip- 
ture is silent; but that silence 
destroys not the meaning of those 
physical monuments of His power 
that God has put before our eyes, 
giving us at the same time facul- 
ties whereby we may interpret 
them, and comprehend theirmean- 
ing." — Studies of the University, 



156 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. 6. And if this be the true account, it is a 
— — : — question whether the condition of the earth, 
immediately antecedent to the creation of man, 
or indeed during any of the preceding intervals, 
can properly be termed a " chaos." Periods there 
may have been when mighty convulsions disturbed 
the face of nature ; but a prevalent order and regu- 
larity seems to have been the general law throughout. 
Of all that He " created," as well as of all that He 
" made," it is emphatically pronounced., " God saw 
that it was good." Or if this be too refined a 
distinction, we find a juster and more convincing 
argument in the orderly deposits of the most 
ancient strata, in the testimony given by the whole 
fossil tribe, as to the suitability of the earth's 
condition to the varying forms of life which from 
time to time have prevailed on its surface. Thus, 
like the atoms of Epicurus, we may banish chaos 
(in the common sense of the term) to the regions 
of poetry and mythology, and claim for every suc- 
cessive condition of the globe which we inhabit, an 
orderly obedience to the laws impressed upon its 
material elements, and conformable to the stage of 
vegetation and to the species of animal life for 
which the particular period was intended to serve. 
7. It is not agreed among geologists, what 
phenomena in the fossil-world may be due to the 
general Flood recorded in Genesis, and what to the 
original stratification of the earth, brought about 
by the successive revolutions of its surface. When 



Traces of the Flood doubtful. 157 

attention was first called to geological inquiries in chap. 

the last century, it was at first thought that the : — 

fossil remains of beasts and fishes, and other 
petrified substances entombed in the earth, were 
all traceable to the effects of the Deluge. When 
it was seen that the highest mountains were 
strewed with pebbles and shells of clearly marine 
origin, — when the bones of the hyaena, the tiger, 
the rhinoceros, and various other creatures of 
tropical climates were found, as at Kirkdale, em- 
bedded and scattered about in caves of much 
higher latitudes than those they naturally inhabit, — 
the conclusion seemed at first sight inevitable, that 
they had been washed there at a time when a great 
flood of waters overspread the earth ; and the 
phenomena were hailed as fresh evidences that 
" the waters had exceedingly prevailed, and all the 
high hills that were under the whole heavens were 
covered." 1 This idea seemed supported by the 
concurrent observations of other philosophers, who 
saw traces of enormous currents having set in from 
the south, and swept in a north-easterly direction 
over the continents of Asia and Europe. Reinhold 
Foster, who accompanied Captain Cook in his 
second voyage round the world, sought thus to 
account for the peculiar configuration of all the 
continents of the Old World; and, observing how 
their sides were hollowed out into vast gulfs on 
the west, and their coasts or edges left pointed and 

1 Gen. yii. 9. 



158 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, precipitous on the south, he thought that it was 



caused by "a great cataclysm coming from the 
south-west : that the waters of the ocean, dashing 
with violence against the barrier which the con- 
tinents opposed to them, ground away their sides 
with fury, scooped out the deep gulfs open 
towards the south-west, swept off all the movable 
earth from the southern side, and left nothing 
standing but those rocky points, which were only 
parts of the skeleton. The islands on the east 
might be only the accumulated ruins of this great 
catastrophe, or the fragments of the continent 
protected from total destruction by the jutting 
point which received the first shock." 1 Another 
celebrated geographer 2 accounted in the same 
way for the vast plains of Siberia and the north, 
and that they were composed of the earth washed 
up and accumulated by strong currents from 
the south, after their fury had been spent upon 
the Himalaya, or the great table land of Asia. 
And it was thus he explained the presence in 
Siberia of fossil elephants, and of mammoths, and 
a multitude of other animals and plants which 
live at the present day only under the sky of the 
tropics. Dr. Hales, and many learned writers of 
his day, eagerly adopted the hypothesis. It is no 
disparagement to the learning or abilities of those 
eminent writers of the last century, to say that 

1 See Guyot's Earth and Man, cli. ii. 2 Pallas, born 1741. 



Similar Catastrophes before the Flood. 159 

further observations have led to a somewhat dif- chap. 

Y. 

ferent account of the phenomena which thus ! 

engaged their attention. " Seductive as this idea 
is at the first glance," observes the author 1 just 
quoted, "it is scarcely necessary to say, that much 
which modern geology has taught us upon the 
structure of the mountains, their rise and the 
composition of the soil, forbids us to adopt it. It 
dates from a time when the mind, struck for the 
first time with the revolutions of the globe, of 
which it saw the traces everywhere, found no force 
sufficiently powerful to bring them about ; and 
when water, in particular, seemed the only agent 
to which recourse could be had to explain them." 
While, however, we abandon these supposed evi- 
dences of the Flood, they by no means cease to 
be of value as throwing important light on the 
Scripture record. The very fact of such currents 
having ever occurred, and having left indelible 
marks of their track — the passage of large deposits 
of earth, rocks, and other materials, rolled along 
over the plains now elevated into mountains, or 
sunk into valleys and lakes, is an instance in 
observed nature which harmonises well with the 
Scripture account of a similar catastrophe and 
convulsion of the elements at the time of the Flood. 
It confirms also the foregoing supposition of alter- 
nating periods of waste and revival. In the Flood 

1 Earth and Man, cli. ii. 



160 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, itself, the scene of devastation was indeed the 

v. 
'- — effect of the Divine displeasure at the aggravated 

impiety of men ; but the instruments employed 
were no other than those same natural agents to 
which the other observed effects are ascribed, and 
whose action at some remote period of time in 
breaking up the existing face of things is thus 
exhibited in fact, and must therefore necessarily be 
admitted. It has not been pretended by geologists 
to explain in what exact manner the successive 
changes and revolutions on the earth's surface, 
which are distinctly observable, have been brought 
about; nor how it was that the creatures of one 
period were put an end to, and their fossil remains 
imbedded in the ground, to be trodden under foot 
by those who came after; — but it may safely be 
contended that the Flood was an instance on actual 
record, of at least one disturbing force, adequate 
to produce such result, and which made a clear 
sweep, so to speak, with the exception of the one 
family in the ark, of all the existing generations of 
animal life. And when we behold the traces of 
new life and the commencement of new strata fol- 
lowing, at whatever interval, upon such temporary 
devastation ; we have an instance before our eyes of 
what the Theist is so anxious to deny, viz.' that 
the Deity has interfered at divers periods, with his 
own creation, and has not left it to be carried on 
with blind uniformity by the spontaneous action of 
general laws. 



No Pre-adamite Vestiges of civilised Life. 161 

And again, whether we date man from the crea- chap. 

v. 
tion, or trace the various families to their second ~ 

origin, as it were, at the flood, when only one 
family survived — the case as to the comparatively 
recent origin of our race is not materially altered. 
To deny the flood is not to get rid of the recent 
formation of mankind, unless it can be shown that 
the period from Adam to Noah was of indefinite 
length, and not the nine generations recorded in 
Genesis ; and that man had existed from time im- 
memorial upon the earth ; but this has never yet 
been proved, and all appearances go quite to the 
contrary. Human remains are not found among 
the earlier vestiges of creation at all; nor even in 
the more recent alluvial deposits are they found in 
any such proportion as to justify the assumption 
in question. 1 And yet, if this assumption were 
true, we might undoubtedly expect, among the 
other relics of bygone ages, not merely the re- 
mains of the human inhabitant, but of the habita- 
tions themselves, the cities and the houses where 
he dwelt and flourished. " It would seem proba- 
ble," remarks Bishop Berkeley, " that guns, medals, 
and implements in metal and stone, might have 
lain entire, buried under ground forty or fifty 
thousand years, if the world had been so old. 
How comes it, then, that no remains are found, 
no antiquities of these numerous ages preceding 
the Scripture accounts of time; that no fragments 

1 See Oh. VII. Appendix, Note I. 
M 



162 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, of buildings, no public monuments, no intaglios, 

: — statues, basso-relievos, medals, inscriptions, utensils, 

or artificial works of any kind are ever discovered, 
which may bear testimony to the existence of those 
mighty empires, those successions of monarchs, 
heroes, and demi-gods, for so many thousand 
years V 1 Or, to quote from a learned geologian 
of our own day, " Many signs of the agency of man 
would have lasted at least as long as the shells of 
the primitive world, had our race been as ancient." 2 
And from another, " Had any creature in the 
likeness of Adam trod the earth during the depo- 
sition of the stratified deposits, his form and works 
must have been traced in as legible characters on 
the framework of our globe, as the forms of those 
plants and animals which have been exhumed in 
such abundance by the practical geologist." 3 

While speaking of the deluge we will only fur- 
ther notice, that whatever difficulties may occur in 
accounting for the recorded phenomena — difficul- 
ties as to the supply of water necessary to drown 
the whole inhabitants of the earth, as to the num- 
ber of beasts in the ark, or how they were provided 
with food ; these and such like difficulties are 
nothing to those which are presented to us in the 
whole field of geological research, and which the 
utmost ability of the most learned and assiduous in- 
vestigators of nature has failed entirely to remove. 

1 Berkeley's Minute Philosopher. 3 M'Causland, p. 208. 

3 Lyell ; Principles of Geology. 



Difficulties in Nature. 163 

How the flints got in between the chalk ; — by what char 

process of fusion it came about, that in the compo- : — 

sition of both of them there should be contained 
the same species of shells; — the whole history of 
the quiet injection of so many myriads of fishes, in- 
sects, and animals, with liquid matter dissolved from 
rocky or mineral masses : — these, and many similar 
phenomena, though the results are visible to the 
eye, are extremely hard to conceive of as to the 
manner of operation. Yet, till these things be 
satisfactorily explained, it is vain to throw all the 
difficulty on the Scripture-side, with the sole view 
of discrediting the whole narrative of the earlier 
chapters of Genesis, and of denying in particular the 
recent origin of man, and the unity of the several 
races in the one common head assigned to them by 
Moses in his account of the creation. Every day, 
amid the rapid strides that science is making, we 
are compelled to witness phenomena which we 
cannot understand. And it is too much, because 
of similar incomprehensibility, to reject accounts 
which, like those in Scripture, are supported by 
an amount of independent evidence to which there 
is nothing equal for any other writings. 

Supposed causes of great physical disturbances on the surface of 
the earth. — Nothing has more puzzled the geologist than to ac- 
count for the agencies by which the successive changes in the 
earth's surface, as well as the displacement of older species of 
plants and animals and their replacement by new ones, were 
effected ; or to explain in what manner the sudden extinction 
and interment of whole worlds of animate life was brought about. 

m 2 



164 Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. Sir Charles Lyell notoriously refers these phenomena to the slow 

: and gradual operation of natural causes, such as we see at work 

every day. Hitchcock ascribes these changes to gradual elevations 
and depressions of land, causing immense revolutions in climate. 
" Such animal and vegetable existences," he says, " have from 
time to time been placed upon the earth as were adapted to its 
varying conditions. When the earliest group was created, such 
were the climate, the atmosphere, the waters, and the means 
of subsistence, that the lower tribes were best adapted to the 
condition of things. That group occupied the earth till such 
changes had occurred as to make it unsuited to their natures, 
and consequently they died out, and new races were brought in, 
not by mere law, but by Divine benevolence, power, and wisdom. 
These tribes also passed away, when the condition of things was 
so changed as to be uncongenial to their natures, to give place to 
a third group, and these again to a fourth, and so on to the 
present races, which, in their turn, perhaps, are destined to 
become extinct." — Religion of Geology, Lect. ix. And again: 
" In the earliest times in which animals and plants lived, the 
climate over the whole globe appears to have been as warm as, 
or even warmer than, it is now between the tropics. And the 
slow change from warmer to colder appears to have been the 
chief cause of the successive destruction of the different races ; 
and new ones were created better adapted to the altered condition 
of the globe : and yet each group seems to have occupied the 
globe through a period of great length ; so that we have here 
another evidence of the vast cycles of duration that must have 
rolled away, even since the earth became a habitable globe." — 
Religion of Geology, Lect. i. The like opinion is expressed by 
Sir Charles Bell, viz. : " That the earth was suited at one time 
to the scaly tribe of the lacertse, with languid motion ; at 
another, to animals of a higher organisation, with more varied 
and lively habits ; and finally, that at any period previous to 
man's creation, the surface of the earth would have been un- 
suitable to him. Any other hypothesis than that of a new 
creation of animals suited to the successive changes in the inor- 
ganic matter of the earth, the condition of the water, atmosphere, 
and temperature, brings with it only an accumulation of diffi- 
culties." — On the Hand, Bridgewater Treatise, iv. p. 27. 



Successive Exertions of Creative Power. 165 

Dr. Whewell, in his History of the Inductive Sciences, has CHAP. 



examined the opposite theories of the " doctrine of catastrophes," 
and that which refers the changes to the uniform operation of 
natural laws acting over very long periods. After carefully 
balancing between them, he shows demonstrably that there is no 
a priori probability, as seems once to have been imagined, in 
favour of the doctrine of uniformity, however adequate it may 
be to account for many phenomena which, by an equal mistake 
on the other side, seemed at first accountable for only by the 
supposition of violent and sudden forces let loose, as it were, 
upon the world. The same author, in another place, where he 
again reviews these opposite hypotheses, thus applies the argu- 
ment to the Scripture account of things : " The last great event 
in the history of the vegetable and animal kingdoms was that by 
which their various tribes were placed in their present seats. 
And we may form various hypotheses with regard to the sudden 
or gradual manner in which we may suppose the distribution to 
have taken place. We may assume that at the beginning of the 
present order of things, a stock of each species was placed in the 
vegetable or animal province to which it belongs, by some cause 
out of the common order of nature ; or we may take a uniformi- 
tarian view of the subject, and suppose that the provinces of the 
organic world derived their population from some anterior state 
of things by the operation of natural causes. Nothing has been 
pointed out in the existing order of things which has any analogy 
or resemblance of any valid kind to that creative energy which 
must be exerted in the production of a new species. And to 
assume the introduction of new species as a part of the order of 
nature, without pointing out any natural fact with which such 
an event can be classed, would be to reject creation by an arbi- 
trary act. Hence, even on natural grounds, the most intelligible 
view of the history of the animal and vegetable kingdoms seems 
to be that each period which is marked by a distinct collection of 
species forms a cycle ; and that, at the beginning of each such 
cycle, a creative power was exerted, of a kind to which there was 
nothing at all analogous in the succeeding part of the same cycle. 
If it be urged that in some cases the same species, or the same 
genus, runs through two geological formations which must, on 
other grounds, be referred to different cycles of creative energy, 

m 3 



166 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, we may reply that the creation of many new species does not 
^- - imply the extinction of all the old ones. Thus we are led by 
our reasonings to this view, that the present order of things was 
commenced by an act of creative power entirely different to any 
agency which has been exerted since. None of the influences 
which have modified the present races of animals and plants since 
they were placed in their habitations on the earth's surface, can 
have had any efficacy in producing them at first. We are ne- 
cessarily driven to assume, as the beginning of the present cycle 
of organic nature, an event not included in the course of nature. 
And we may remark that this necessity is the more cogent, pre- 
cisely because other cycles have preceded the present." — Whewell, 
Indications of the Creator, pp. 161, 162. A passage will be 
quoted in a subsequent chapter, from which it will appear, that 
Sir John Herschel would ascribe the phenomena in question to 
certain modifications of the solar heat and atmosphere, rather than 
to mere changes of level affecting the temperature on the surface 
of the earth. (See Chap. VI. p. 177; and Herschel, Outlines of 
Astronomy, § 830.) 



167 



CHAP VI. 

The Mosaic Order of Creation. 



u A god alone can comprehend a God ; 
Man's distance how immense ! On such a theme 
Nothing can satisfy but what confounds ; 
Nothing but what astonishes is true." 

Young. 

. . . , " Deum namque ire per omnes 
Terrasque tractusque maris, coelumque profundum ; 
Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne ferarum . , . 
. . . Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus 
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet." 

Virg. Georg. 4 ; JEn. 6. 

Let us turn now to the sacred text itself. The chap. 

VI. 

part which concerns the present subject is from " 

Gen. i. 1, to Gen. ii. 8. And in what we shall 
offer by way of commentary, it is our purpose not 
to be guided solely by those who have laboured in 
this field since geology brought forward its pecu- 
liar difficulties, but to take carefully into account 
the earlier and more independent authorities as 
well. Many ingenious modes of reconciling the 
text of Scripture with the facts of geological 
science have of late years been suggested. We 
would mention with all respect and gratitude the 
labours of those excellent men, who came forward 

M 4 



168 Veracity of Genesis, 

chap, when the citadel of our faith appeared to be in 
: — danger, at once to vindicate the authority of Scrip- 
ture, and to reconcile it with the new discoveries 
of science. But after all our endeavours to follow l 
what is so ably advanced by this class of writers, 
there remains often an uncomfortable impression 
on the mind, that had it not been for the necessity 
of accounting for certain visible phenomena, many 
new meanings would never have occurred which 
now we find proposed as the natural sense of Scrip- 
ture. It will therefore be the aim of the following 
chapters to show that the received facts of geology 
are not only compatible with the text of Scripture 
as interpreted by a modern school of expositors, but 
with known interpretations of it, before the dis- 
coveries of geology were heard of, and before they 
could have had any influence upon the opinions of 
those who wrote. 2 

Gen. i. 1. " In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth." 

The word "beginning," whether taken in a 
relative or an absolute sense, must needs in this 
place have a very wide and indefinite meaning. 
For though in the relative use of it, the term 
would be restricted by the subject in hand; as 



1 The reader may consult Hitch- 2 C ertain opinions of the fathers 

cock, Religion of Geology (con- may be here referred to, — see 

taming almost all the newest note, Chap. V. See also a Catena 

views); J. Pye Smith, On the of expositions in Gray, Earth' sAn- 

Relation between the Scriptures tiquity, Appendix to Chap. III. 
and Geology, 



The mystic " Beginning." 169 

when we read in the Gospels, u He which made chap. 
them at the beginning made them male and 
female," 1 we refer naturally to the subject in 
hand, and finding it " marriage," the " beginning " 
becomes at once restricted to the time of man's 
own creation; yet the subject in Genesis being 
a much wider one, viz. the entire creation, and 
the whole compass of " heaven and earth," — by 
the same rule we claim for the term " beginning" 
a scope as wide as the subject itself, and refer it to 
a period as indefinite and remote as the imagina- 
tion can conceive — the first moment of time as 
measured by the first act of creation. We think 
this the only meaning compatible with the context, 
and with other places of Scripture. But to make 
the words a mere preface to the six days' work, 
and as though all the particulars were soon to 
follow, of what is here summed up under the 
general phrase " created in the beginning" — is to 
empty it of all sublimity and grandeur — to say 
nothing of the incoherency of a statement which 
would make a beginning from two things at once, 
" heaven and earth." One of these surely must 
have stood at " the beginning," and not both, if the 
" beginning" was merely meant for the first stage 
of the proceedings shortly after detailed. Passing 
by this interpretation then of the term, as insipid 
and irrelevant, we confirm our own sense of it by 
comparing, among other passages the following; 

1 Matt. xix. 4. 



170 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his 

: — - way, before his works of old. I was set up from 

everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth 

was Before the mountains were settled, 

before the hills was I brought forth When 

He prepared the heavens I was there, when He set 
a compass upon the face of the depth" (Prov. viii. 
22, 23, 25, 28). It is the very impossibility of 
conceiving definitely the idea of time and of its 
beginning, which throws into stronger relief and pro- 
minence that which we doubt not is here the main 
idea, viz. the assertion that God Himself was the 
true and only Creator of all. The stress is evi- 
dently here, that at what time soever the things 
were made, and of whatsoever number and variety, 
in " heaven and in earth," they consist, the great 
God of Israel was the Maker of them all. " Heaven 
and earth " thus include all things 1 whatever. It 
is not merely " the firmament " of verse 8, that 
is meant by " Heaven ;" but, as we before showed, 
the whole expanse of the stars and celestial bodies, 
with all their supposable inhabitants and appur- 
tenances. And it is to teach us that in no other 
way, were all these and everything in them, and in 
our own world, originally made, than by the sove- 
reign will and power of the One Almighty Crea- 
tor ; and that, at a time or times utterly unknown, 

1 Ccelum et terrain. Intellige Estius. Mundum iiniversum. — 
omnes terrestres et coelestes crea- Picherellus, who compares Gen. 
turas. — Fagius-, Vetablus ; Lyra ; ii. 1 ; Ps. xxxiii. . 6. 



Mystifying Effect of preconceived Ideas. 



Ill 



perhaps unintelligible by us *, " In the beginning 
God created the heaven and the earth." And 
now, as we advance in this record of creation, we 
begin insensibly to substitute our own precon- 
ceived ideas for the plain account of Moses. Most 
readers are so familiar with this chapter of Genesis, 
that it scarce occurs to them to question the cor- 
rectness of the impressions which they have long 
associated with it ; and it almost disturbs their 
faith, to depart in the least from their customary 
acceptation of its meaning. The scene they have 
pictured to themselves may be somewhat as fol- 
lows : — First, a wild primitive sea of chaos, tossing 



CHAP. 
VI. 



1 " Quo extiterant initio coekun 
et terra, eo Dens ilia creavit," is 
the close rendering of Picherellus. 
"In the beginning'' was some- 
what fancifully, perhaps, inter- 
preted by some of the Fathers 
to express the agency of Christ 
in the work of creation, who is the 
true " beginning." Ita Christum 
Gen. i. 1, vocari tradunt Origenes, 
Basiliiis,Hieronymus,Augustinus, 
Beda, ut sit sensus, "In principio," 
i.e. in Filio Dei creavit Deus 
caelum et terram; verum rectius 
statuit Ambrosius lib. i. Hexem. : 
c. 6. intelligi principium temporis : 
sc. materice, loci adeoque rerum 
omnium creatarum, — Leigh. Crit. 
Sac. ad voc W'*n. The parallel 
expression in St. John's Gospel, 
which was probably the last 
book in the sacred canon, with 
this in Genesis, the first book, is 
certainly remarkable. "In the 



was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the 
Word was God." It should be 
noted, however, that while the 
expression in Genesis denotes 
that all things had a beginning in 
time, viz. when God created 
them, there is no such ascription 
of a beginning to our blessed Lord 
in St. John. " In the beginning," 
he tells us, "%uas the Word," not 
"was created." The Greek 
marks it strongly by the word r\v 
(which compare with the iyevtro 
of Genesis, ver. 3, &c), expres- 
sing an existence already begun, 
and going on even when nothing 
else existed save Deity Him- 
self: — much more, then, in the 
comparatively late "beginning" 
of creation itself, — He "was" 
who is the Eternal " I AM" (see 
John viii. 58) j "the A and Q the 
First and the Last." — Eev. i. 11. 



172 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, in unruly agitation ; then suddenly at the same 
voice which " rebuked the winds and the sea, and 
there was a great calm," a new condition of order 
and beauty; whence immediately arose the beau- 
teous and orderly frame of the earth ; light for the 
first time sprang out of darkness — the shades of 
evening gave place to the first dawn of morning, 
and the day appeared. On following days, by a 
similar process, both vegetable and animal life was 
first called into existence ; fruits and vegetables were 
the earliest products, then, after two days' inter- 
val, birds, fishes, then again, cattle and creeping 
things, and beasts of the earth after their kind, till 
we come on the sixth day to man himself ; the 
interval of the fourth day is occupied by the crea- 
tion of the sun, moon, and planets, and of all the 
stars of heaven. Such might be, and often is, 
imagined to be the opening scene in Genesis. But 
now, so far from all things having sprung imme- 
diately from a primitive chaos of boisterous and 
jarring elements ; science will tell us that, no 
sooner was matter created, than it was subject to 
general laws, by the gradual operation of which 
successive changes took place. So far from the 
light being wholly unknown, or birds, beasts, and 
fishes being never seen till the day wheri order 
thus for the first time succeeded to disorder, and 
light to primeval darkness ; — her doctrine, gathered 
from many clear intimations of nature, is, that 
ages upon ages had rolled along, and revolution 



Pioneering Office of Science. 173 

after revolution had occurred on the surface of the chap. 
earth, each witnessing some new race of inhabitants, 
and some new forms of vegetable life, before the 
sera which brought man upon the stage. Light, it 
would appear by the same investigations of science, 
must have contributed its share to the maintenance 
of life, and to the support of the various organ- 
isms and their specific functions during all those 
antecedent periods. The sun, too, very probably 
subsisted in his orbit, and, most certainly, the stars, 
which are distant suns, and from many of which 
our little earth must be wholly invisible. So far 
from the fishes and fowls being wholly separated, 
by perhaps a considerable interval from the first 
plants and trees, indications are found that the 
first terrestial plants were coeval with the first 
fishes, and that many sea weeds, and many speci- 
mens of the zoophyte tribe, during enormous 
periods, preceded both. And however we may 
stretch the sense of " day," it does not seem entirely 
to remove most of these apparent discrepancies be- 
tween the conclusions of science and the relation 
in Genesis. The question then arises, Is our geo- 
logy at fault ? or our astronomy ? or our theology ? 
We answer none. For here, in this immeasurable 
period from " the beginning," we find time suffi- 
cient to allow for all existing phenomena that 
cannot otherwise be explained. This awful gulf is, 
as it were, spanned and bridged over by the sup- 
position of innumerable worlds then starting into 



174 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, existence, in orderly though unknown succession. 

'- — There is indeed no record of their birth in history. 

Such records, we may reverently believe, would 
have been impossible, even if expedient or useful. 
They would far have exceeded any power of man 
to register, or any compass of books to contain. 
But our ignorance as to the facts does not preclude 
the reasonableness of the supposition — we might 
almost say, its necessity, in order to harmonise our 
ideas of God's immensity and eternity with the 
range in time and space of his created works. It is 
something to know, that there is nothing in this 
first verse of Genesis, but what assists and har- 
monises with this belief. The myriads of suns 
and planetary systems which stud the sky, must 
have had a beginning, and we find that beginning 
here. 1 But to confine ourselves at present to the 



1 It is finely remarked by the stars that are invisible to the naked 
learned Dr. Hales, " Whether ' the eye immensely, leading us to con- 
host ' of the fixed stars were all elude that there are infinite 
' created and made ' at the same numbers far beyond our ken, ut- 
time with our system, may reason- terry undiscoverable, so they de- 
ably be doubted. For though all monstrate the immense distances 
these had a beginning, it is no even of the largest and nearest, 
where explicitly stated in Scrip- and lead lis also to conclude, that 
ture that they had the same be- these can be no other than suns, 
; and the first philosophy, shining with native light, and 



in the days of Job, plainly inti- from analogy, attended with suit- 
mates that ' the morning stars ' able trains of planets, furnished, 
(by a beautiful figure representing like ours, with inhabitants adapted 
the angels of light) were prior to to each, compared with which our 
that creation which they cele- whole system shrinks into insig- 
brated with hymns of joy. Mo- nificance. Is it then to be 
dern telescopic discoveries, as they imagined for a moment, that the 
have augmented the number of whole ' spangled heavens, a shin- 



VI. 



The Primeval Void. Yi§ 

world which we inhabit. Professor Sedgwick chap. 
states, " We are certain that there have been great 
successive changes in the surface of the earth — 
that some of these changes were slow and gradual 
— that others were brought about by the sudden 
eruption of the pent-up powers of nature, and were 
comparatively rapid and violent ; but each a pre- 
lude to the material conditions which followed, till 
physical nature became what she now is." l Time 
sufficient for all these changes, so well attested and 
established on the face of the earth, is supplied 
from those immeasurable ages which stretched 
along from the mystic " beginning " to which the 
sacred record points back. In perfect consistency 
with this idea is also the second verse in Genesis. 
We have here, too, room to satisfy the speculations 
of geologists. 

Gen. i. 2. " And the earth was without form and 
void : and darkness was upon the face of the deep. 
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the 
waters." 

It is best, perhaps, to take all the clauses of this 
verse together, though something might be gained 
to the geological side of the argument, by treating 
them as descriptive of quite separate periods. To 



ing frame/ were called into exist- not created until so lately as seven 

ence merely 'to give light upon or eight thousand years ago?" — 

the earth/ which would be abso- Hales, Analysis, vol. i. p. 813. 

lutely invisible from the nearest ? 1 Sedgwick, Studies of the JJni- 

orthat the universe, which is found versity of Cambridge, Preface to 

to be infinite or boundless, was 5th Edition, p. ccxviii. 



176 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, waive this advantage, however, we may observe, 
- first, the marked transition, where the writer 
passes from the mention of " heaven and earth " 
together, to that of the " earth " alone : " And the 
earth was without form and void." In speaking of 
these words as helping out the supposition of a long 
duration prior to the earth assuming its present 
superficial form, we may at least say, they indicate 
a condition, towards which the elements of nature 
had apparently been long working up, and in which 
they continued working, till at last a new crisis 
sets in, expressed in the last words of the verse to 
which we shall come next. It is probable, too, that 
after the first creation of all material elements, 
things were left for the most part, to the operation 
of natural causes; and this necessarily implies a 
slow and gradual progress over large spaces of time. 
As regards the words themselves, " without form 
and void," the expression seems plain, but it is not 
so easy to form a clear conception of the meaning. 
The Chaldee version has it, "empty and waste;" 
the Syriac, "waste and uncultivated;" the Greek, 
" dark and unfurnished." " Without inhabitants, 
without produce;" 1 "without produce, and with 
no aptitude to produce ;" 2 "without plants, with- 
out animals;" 3 — such are the glosses of different 
interpreters. Of these, the Greek version 4 trenches 

1 Ainsworth. 4 Adopted by M'Causland, who 

2 Piscator. well translates, " a dark, un~ 

3 Estius; Tremellius. tenanted, watery waste" — "dark, 



Modifications of the Sun's Atmosphere. 177 

somewhat upon what follows in the next clause, viz. chap. 
" And darkness was upon the face of the deep." 
In a former chapter, the condition of the earth's 
atmosphere, answering to this description of " dark- 
ness," was fully explained. It was shown not 
necessarily to imply the non-existence of the light 
of the sun, or at least of his substance ; but to 
have been due partly to agencies affecting the 
earth's atmosphere, and partly to similar conditions 
in that of the sun. While the sun was regarded 
by astronomers as itself an orb of fire, it might 
have been difficult to imagine any considerable 
diminution of light from that source, supposing it 
to have been already in existence, as we shall see 
reason presently to believe that it was. But after 
the discoveries of Herschel as to the true nature 
of the sun's constitution, and that his light is 
due to a luminous atmosphere, underlying which 
is another dense atmosphere of clouds, it becomes 
far more easy to conceive any possible shades of 
variety in the degree of luminosity from that 
source. Sir John Herschel says, " Geology testifies 
to the fact of extensive changes having taken place 
at epochs of the .most remote antiquity in the 

inasmuch as it was covered with state, in which, the elements of 

vapour, and enveloped in the darkness and light, and all other 

'darkness that was on the face things, arecommingled in an abyss 

of the deep ' — untenanted, in- called the ' deep,' but a tem- 

asmuch as no organic forms of poraiy obscuration and a tem- 

plants and animals had yet been porary desolate and waste condi- 

called into being." — Sermons on tion." — Gray, EartKs Antiquity, 

Stones, p. 147. " Mot a chaotic pp. 143-14a 

N 



178 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, climate and temperature of our globe — changes 

'- — difficult to reconcile with the operation of second 

causes, such as a different distribution of sea and 
land, but which would find an easy and natural 
explanation in a slow variation of the supply of 
light and heat afforded primarily by the sun itself." l 
But we are not suffered to dwell long on this 
condition of dull inert stagnation, with darkness 
all around. We are wakened by the stirring 
announcement, "And the Spirit of God moved 2 
upon the face of the waters." By the " Spirit,' 7 
in this place, some ancient Jewish expositors under- 
stood, as we are informed by Bishop Patrick, " a 
strong wind ; " others, "the sun, which gives spirit 
and life to all things:" but the current of later 
interpretation tends (we should say more correctly) 
to spiritualise the words, and to understand no less 
than, as the learned prelate says, "the infinite 
wisdom and power of God, which made a vehement 
commotion and fermentation upon the fluid mass, 

1 Herschel's Outlines of Astro- the firmament must have shut out 

nomy, § 830, ed. y. Ci An obscur- the sun from the earth's surface." 

ation, extending for many thousand — M'Causland,]). 192. 
miles ; has oftentimes been recorded 2 Or rather, " brooded upon the 

in our own day, as the result of waters as a hen doth upon her 

recent volcanic eruptions ; and eggs." — Patrick. See again Deut. 

especially when volcanic force has xxxii. 11, " fluttereth over her 

upheaved the bottom of the sea, young." Heb.riQITnip. Piclierellus 

vapours dense, continuous, and in Cosmoposd, apud Poli Synops. 

vast in extent, have suffused such " The expression seems intended 

large portions of space, as to have to convey the first act of the crea- 

obscured, for a long period, the tionof life, the pouring of vitality 

sim from view." — Earth's An- into the waters. Comp. Ps. civ. 

tiquity, p. 11&. " Clouds above 29, 30."— M'Causland. 



Condition of the Earth, commonly called Chaos. 179 

to separate the parts one from the other." 1 Thus chap. 



far, as regards the agent : as regards the work, we 
may look upon it as a transition-state in creation, 
a terminal stage of preparation for a new creative 
epoch. What forms of life may have existed and 
flourished during the earth's condition as a watery 
abyss, we are not informed; nor how long it con- 
tinued in that condition. The last-mentioned 
commentator says, " How long all things continued 
in mere confusion, before the light was extracted 
out of it, we are not told. It might be, for aught 
that is here revealed, a great while ; and all that 
time, the mighty Spirit was at work, disposing, 
preparing, and' ripening every part of it for such 
productions as were to appear successively in such 
spaces of time as are here and afterwards mentioned 
by Moses ; who informs us, that after things were 
so digested and made ready (by long fermentations, 
perhaps) to be wrought into form, God produced 
every day for six days, some creature or other, till 
all was finished." 2 Till we know, to a greater 
certainty, exactly what happened, or how far this 
mention of a dark and desert condition of the earth 



1 Add those many passages in in its present state. He affirms, 
Holy Scripture, where creative indeed, that it was created, and 
agency is ascribed to the Holy thatitwas* without form and void,' 
Spirit, as Job. xxvi. 13, Ps. when ' the Spirit of God ' began 
xxxiii. 6, civ. 30. to move on the face of the fluid 

2 Patrick ad Gen. i.5. The case mass, but he does not say how 
is clearly and forcibly stated by long that mass had been in the 
Bishop Gleig as follows : " Moses state of chaos, or whether it was, 
records the history of the earth only or was not, the wreck of some 

n 2 



180 



Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. 
VI. 



was spoken relatively or absolutely, we are not 
entitled to conclude that all was mere chaos and 
confusion. We may rather picture to ourselves 
very similar scenes to what even now appear, — not, 
perhaps, the same order, nor the same perfection 
nor variety of forms, — certainly nothing approach- 
ing to the higher orders of the animal creation, 
still less to man himself. Just as where " heaven ' 7 
is mentioned at verse 1, the fitting up of it with 
the heavenly host, and with all the beauteous stars 
of light, is left unrecorded ; so here, perhaps, with 
the mere mention of creative influence at work, the 



former system, which had been 
inhabited by living creatures of 
different kind from those which 
occupy the present. We read in 
various places of Scripture of a 
new heavens and a new earth to 
succeed the present earth and 
visible heavens, after they shall 
again be reduced to chaos by a 
general conflagration, and there 
is nothing in the books of Moses 
positively affirming that there 
was not an old earth and old 
heavens, or, in other words, a 
former planetary system, com- 
posed of the same matter with the 
present, before it was reduced to 
that chaotic state in which Moses 
represents it as having been when 
the Spirit of God began to move 
on the face of the waters. . . . 
If philosophers have really dis- 
covered fossil bones that belonged 
to species and genera of animals 
which now nowhere exist, and if 
the destruction of these genera 



and species cannot be accounted 
for by the general deluge or any 
other known catastrophe, or if 
strata be found which could not 
have been so disposed as they are 
but by the sea, or at least some 
watery mass remaining over them 
in a state of tranquillity for a much 
longer period than the duration of 
Noah's flood, — if these things be 
indeed well ascertained, . . . 
there is nothing in the sacred 
writings forbidding us to suppose, 
that they are the ruins of a former, 
earth, deposited in the chaotic 
mass, of which Moses informs us 
that God formed the present 
system. How long," he adds, 
11 it continued in such chaotic state 
it is vain to inquire ; but if in that 
state it contributed to keep in their 
proper places the other systems of 
the universe, it served a very im- 
portant purpose among the works 
of God." — Gleig, Annotations on 
Stackhouse, b. i. c. i. 



Origin of Tertiary Strata conjectured. 181 

record closes, but we are left to fill up the outline chap. 

VI 

as best we may. And it may not be presumptuous '■ — 

to hope that the advance of science may more and 
more enable us to do so, while to Scripture we 
shall ever owe it, that we start with right ideas as 
to the true and only source of life ; and that it is 
to the superintending hand of Omnipotence that 
all things owe their being. Who knows but that 
this very verse in Genesis may conceal in its abyss 
of waters the lapse of those very ages to which 
belonged the formation of the tertiary, and some, 
perhaps, of the secondary strata — those parts of 
the earth's crust which are coeval with the first 
appearance of animated forms ? 

We stop at this point, before proceeding to 
the " six days' work," to contemplate the advance 
thus far made in the relation. We believe it to 
contain stages in which the true wonder of the 
world's order consists, even more than in the mere 
six days' work which follows, and which may have 
been related in detail, chiefly because it more nearly 
concerns the immediate object in view, when the 
revelation or vision of it was made to Moses. We 
may distinguish then, up to verse 3, the following 
four or more separate periods. 

1. " The beginning " — before all things. 

2. When God " creates the heaven," 

3. And " the earth." 

4. (a.) When "the earth is without form and 

void." 

N 3 



182 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. (b.) When " darkness is upon the face of the 

'— deep." 

(c.) When " the Spirit of God moves upon tlLe 
face of the waters." 
The shortness of the relation should not blind 
us to its comprehensiveness and variety. From 
speaking of the " heaven and the earth " together, 
in verse 1, the transition to the " earth " only, 
verse 2, is, as we have already observed, most 
marked and emphatic. As though he would say, 
" Of the heavens I omit to relate more, or of all 
the wonders of the sky, in the order of their several 
creations. And though I shall relate presently 
how the sun in its orbit (that orbit, perhaps, as- 
signed it during some far more remote antecedent 
period), became tributary to the uses of man upon 
the earth, I pass over all particulars of its first crea- 
tion, or of the creation of any of the heavenly 
bodies whatsoever, or yet of the angels, or whatso- 
ever forms may fill up the vast regions of infinite 
space ; and I confine myself now principally to the 
earth ? " But though Moses thus limits himself, 
or rather was thus limited in the revelation which 
he received, who, without presumption, can venture 
to imagine that the account omitted was a mere 
nothing ? and that we know all because he pro- 
ceeds to tell us so much? Must we not rather 
think what hidden worlds of truth lie beyond the 
province here immediately revealed ! and that in 
the particular relation given we do but touch on 



Details of the " Heavenly " Creation unrecorded. 183 

the confines of universal truth !— enough only to im- chap. 
press upon us with awful solemnity, the one great 
ruling thought, that all things spring from one 
great original, the power, wisdom, and goodness of 
the one eternal Almighty Creator ! And if the ex- 
position, which is a very ancient one, of the words 
" heaven and earth "be true, as importing the ma- 
terials or prime elements whereof these were after- 
wards formed and made up, what an endless flight of 
ages rushes upon the mind ! For to take this earth 
alone, we see how from the mention of the matter 
of it, he proceeds to devote the whole remainder of 
this chapter, and part of the next to its actual mak- 
ing up and furnishing in its last and present phasis. 
What might not, then, have been the space required, 
had it been thought expedient to proceed in like 
manner, from the first mention of the materials of 
u heaven " to a proportionably minute specification 
of the several details of its glorious mechanism, 
as we may judge of it from those glorious orbs of 
light which irradiate before our very eyes the wide 
expanse of the nightly sky ? Still more, if we had 
been minutely informed as to all antecedent phases 
and epochs of our own earth, and of the long series 
of revolutions which are traceable when we come 
to examine into its structure? If it should be 
thought that upon the theory which we have advo- 
cated, an undue preponderance is given to the six 
days' preparation for the coming of man into the 
world, we refer again to the main object of the 

N 4 



184 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, whole revelation, which was to lead men up to the 
vi. . . . 
'- — idea of the one all-presiding all-creating God, and 

to keep to the things which were of nearest in- 
terest and relation to himself. There may have 
been other reasons as well. It may be that in this 
recorded creation we see as in a glass the reflection 
of all other creations, though not recorded : — the 
Omnific Word alike operating in all and saying, 
"Let there be light, and there was light;" — "the 
Spirit " alike " moving upon the face of the waters ;" 
— ruin and reparation alike succeeding each other in 
their destined order. The whole description in the 
sacred text, though not directly written with that 
purpose, indirectly at least, admits of an application 
to all creations and to all times ; — God in all is to be 
glorified, and His hand confessed. In a geological 
point of view, the same effort of imagination by 
which we retrace the earth to its condition of a 
watery deep, suffices to realise the repetition of the 
same condition again and again, in previous stages 
of its existence. We come easily to picture to our- 
selves successive epochs of ruin and repair, of the 
incumbent flood, and of the emerging surface ready 
to receive a new race of inhabitants. Such an 
exercise stretches the imagination, it is true ; but 
not more so than if we seek to trace the path of 
the comet, or to realise the distances of the fixed 
stars ; while every such effort tends to deepen and 
exalt our impressions of the Divine Omnipotence. 
We come now to the days of the last, or Adamite 



First Day of Adamite Creation. 185 

creation, as recorded in Genesis, chap. i. v. 3 to chap. 
chap. ii. v. 8. : — 



First, Chap. I. vv. 3-5. The first Day. 

v. 3. " And God said, Let there be light, and 
there was light. 

v. 4. " And God saw the light, that it was good : 
and God divided the light from the darkness. 

v. 5. a And God called the light Day, and the 
darkness he called Night. And the evening and 
the morning were the first day." 1 

It was the opinion of the ancient Jewish com- 
mentators, that the " light " of this first day was 
no other than that of the sun itself, whose creation 
they refer to this day, reserving for the fourth 
some new development of the laws by which his 
light was regulated. Among the Fathers it was an 

1 Some translate, " And it was morning ; that is to say, an inter- 
evening, and it was morning, one mediate night, the season of 
day" Also at vv. 8, 13, 19, 23, visions or dreams ; and the tran- 
the words might more correctly sactions of it appearing to Moses 
he translated, " a second, a third, to be comprised in the compass of 
a fourth, a fifth day ; " while at a natural day, which is defined to 
v. 31 it is "the sixth day." See be the period of light, though 
Benisch, Translation of the Petita- the realities of which it was the 
teuch.. Mr. M'Causland translates vision occupied many natural 
— " then evening was, then mom- days and nights. The transac- 
ing was, one day ;" and comparing tions of a dream are often com- 
this with " the vision of the even- pressed into the space of a few 
ing and morning," in Daniel, minutes ; and on the same prin- 
"we cannot but see," he ob- ciple, the operations of the Divine 
serves, "that there is strong Author of creation, which may 
ground for the suggestion, that have occupied a long series of 
the whole scene was communi- years, may have been presented 
cated to the sacred historian in a to Moses as the works of a single 
succession of visions, each separate day." — Sermons on Stones, p. 125. 
an evening- and a 



186 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, open question, as we see by the commentary of the 

'- — celebrated Lyra, who says, " the substance of the 

two greater luminaries mentioned on the fourth 
day was made on the first; but that which had before 
been rude and irregular, was set in more perfect 
order on the fourth day; it then received power 
to make its influence felt upon this inferior orb of 
the earth." x However this be, or whether the 
substance of the sun might not have been created 
earlier still ; and whether the things recorded both 
of the first and fourth days, were not, alike, succes- 
sive adaptations of the light of the sun, and of the 
earth's receptivity for the same, may well be made 
a question. Without repeating what has already 
been advanced at some length on this subject, we 
may observe the confirmation gained to our former 
argument by the words which follow this production 
of the light: — "And God divided the light from 
the darkness." The antecedent state having been 
one of murky mist, steaming off from the boiling 
and troubled surface of the earth, when there was 
no clear light by day, and when, possibly, a much 
higher extent of atmosphere served to refract some 
straggling portions of indistinct light by night; 
now at once the day becomes more distinctly day, 
and the night more distinctly night. The Creator 



1 Hebrsei dicunt solera primo interim's antea fuerat, quarto die 

die creaturn. — Poli Synops: ad formata est; et tunc accepit 

Gen. i. 14. Substantia lumina- virtutem infiuendi in heec in- 

rium facta est primo die ; sed quae feriora. — Lyra, 



Literal Sense of the Days. 187 

" divided between them," 1 as it is in the Hebrew, chap. 
i.e. by a more distinct and perfect . boundary ; 
altering and adjusting in the necessary propor- 
tions both the luminous power of the sun's atmo- 
sphere, and the receptive quality of the earth's. 

We pass on to that which follows : — " And 
evening was, and morning was," (thereby making) 
" the first day." We take this to be a sufficiently 
close translation 2 ; and the sense is, " that by some 
arrangement of the light, day and night were made 
to succeed each other with a constant regularity, 
approaching, more or less, to what at present takes 
place by the successive returns of the earth on 
her axis to the same meridian? But how are 
we to account for the so frequent assertion and 
repetition of this clause, " Evening was and morning 
was," during the whole six days' work, as at vv. 8, 
13, 19, 23, 31? It would appear to have had a 
prospective allusion to the fourth day, after which, 
and after the adjustment of the sun's light, and of 

1 So the Hebrew literally signi- the reflection of the solar rays 
fies. " Thus/' remarks Mr. Gray, caused to succeed the other ; an 
"the darkness which was over unanswerable argument, hence, 
the face of the deep became par- seems furnished for the prior 
tially scattered ; not indeed en- existence of the sun : how other- 
tirely ; that was left for completion wise could there be a first, second, 
till the work of the fourth day, and third day ? " — Earth 's An- 
but sufficiently so to mark the re- tiquity, p. 158. 
volution of time. And since this 2 " Ita extitit, vespertino con- 
division between light and dark- stans etmatutino, primus dies." — 
ness, i.e. between day and night, ' Picherellus. " Vespere et mane 
necessarily indicates the fact of primum diem constituerunt." — 
the revolution of the earth upon Gatakerus. 
its axis, whereby the one was by 



188 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, the mutual motions of the earth and sun more 

VI. 

nearly according to their present laws, it would 
have been but natural to expect this regular succes- 
sion of night and day, so often insisted on through- 
out the chapter. But by this early mention of it, 
ver. 5, we learn tha,t the effect was produced in the 
first instance, independently of the present laws of 
the sun's light. And thus it was intended to guard 
against the error to which mankind were already 
prone, of making the sun the author (as the 
Egyptians did their Osiris) of every created thing; 
whereas Moses here intimates it was not even the 
cause of the evening and morning, those constant phe- 
nomena of our world. The same care is observable 
(chap. ii. 5) to prevent attributing any originating 
power to the rain, or river- waters applied by tillage. 
From the account of Moses in the last-mentioned 
passage, it would appear that as there was an up- 
growth of herbs and plants without the genial 
moisture of the rain, so in chap. 1, without the 
sun (i.e. without the light of the sun in its present 
intensity), there was in like manner the process of 
vegetation going on — " the earth bringing forth 
the grass of the field., and the flower and fruit of 
the tree" (see vv. 11, 12); and in further ex- 
emplification of the same principle, he now adds in 
the passage before us, that prior to the more recent 
modifications of the solar light, there were the 
same phenomena of night and day as have been 
since experienced. 



Second Day of Adamite Creation. 189 

Secondly. Chap. I. vv. 6-10. The second Day. chap. 

v. 6. u And God said, Let there be a firmament : — 

in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the 
waters from the waters. 

v. 7. " And God made the firmament, and divided 
the waters which were under the firmament from 
the waters which were above the firmament : and it 
was so. 

v. 8. "And God called the firmament Heaven. 
And the evening and the morning were the second 
day. 

v. 9. " And God said, Let the waters under the 
heaven be gathered together unto one place, and 
let the dry land appear : and it was so. 

v. 10. " And God called the dry land Earth ; and 
the gathering together of the waters, called He 
Seas : and God saw that it was good." 

The second day of creation is ushered in by 
the same words as the first, " And God said." l 
So at the end of the day we find, as at the end 
of the first, the parallel expression, " And God 
saw that it was good;" 2 by which same phrase, 
afterwards, the work of each day is similarly 
wound up. It might have seemed superfluous thus 
to pronounce a commendation on that which is 
clearly announced to be a Divine work ; — which has 
made some excellent commentators observe, that 



1 Occurring nine times in the ? Occurring seven times, vv. 4, 

chapter, vv. 3 ; 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31. 



190 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, the words may rather signify in the Hebrew, 

: — " God had provided that it should be good :" 

i.e. had foreseen everything in the Divine Mind, 
before it was made ; and consequently, when 
made, it answered perfectly to the Divine ideal, and 
" was good." x Perhaps, in the first saying, " God 
said," we may recognise the Divine Word, the Aoyog 
of St. John, at whose bidding all was executed ; 
and in the second, the Divine Spirit, by whose 
wisdom all was contrived ; for " by his Spirit he 
hath garnished the heavens." " By the word of 
the Lord were the heavens made ; and all the host 
of them by the breath of his mouth." 2 Another 
and critical use has been made of the latter clause. 
By its usual occurrence after the work of all the 
following days, and its non-occurrence here till the 
end of ver. 10, it is taken to indicate the con- 
tinuance of the second day's work down to that 
verse, and inclusive of it. We are thus led to 
embrace the separation of the dry land from the 
seas, together with the structure of the firmament, 
in the work of that second day. To the same 
time — since the description of ch. ii. can only be 
supplementary to that of ch. i. — we may refer the 
selection and preparation of the garden of Eden. 

1 Reminding us of a remark of in the prescient mind of God." — 

Professor Sedgwick : " We believe Studies of University, Pre/., p. 

that the past history of nature is ccxix. 

consistent and coherent, and that 2 Job, xxvi. 13 -, Ps. xxxiii. 6, 

before the creation of all worlds ciy. 29, 30. 
there was an archetype of nature 



The Firmament. 191 

Its furnishing with trees, &c, would follow in their chap. 

. VI. 

order in the next day's work, and with birds and : — 

beasts on the fifth day. It is better to bring the 
mention of them thus early into one view ; as the 
sooner we accustom ourselves to compare closely 
the two chapters and observe the supplementary 
form (according to the frequent custom of Holy 
Scripture) of the description in the latter, the more 
we shall admire the admirable harmony, which 
apparently without design subsists between them ; 
while at the same time our eyes become opened to 
observe, that under a very short account may 
frequently be concealed a much greater variety of 
particulars than would at first sight be imagined. 

Some variety of opinions has been manifested 
among commentators, as to the meaning and extent 
of the " firmament " in this passage. The solid 
crystalline sphere of the ancient Hebrew interpre- 
ters has long since given way to the simple and 
boundless expanse of the air and upper regions of 
the sky. 1 To those who would extend it to the 
empyrseum itself, or seat of the highest heavens, 
we think it a sufficient answer to refer to what was 
said on verse 2, where we remarked that Moses 
having started in verse 1 with the mention of the 
u heaven and the earth" together, expressly con- 
fines himself to the " earth " alone. The firma- 



i n 



Firmamentum" denotat ex- — Vetablus ; Drusius. Aquas Em- 

pansionem. — Malvendus; Marcus; pyrceo quam proximas. Quidam 

Piscator ; Tremellius ; Fagius ; apud Patres. See above ; note. 
Vetablus. Diffusum corpus aeris. 



192 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, ment, therefore, must be here the region of the 

'- — clouds and higher atmosphere, extending at most 

to the whole planetary system to which this earth 
belongs. 1 So Bishop Patrick, "the region of the 
air is the lower firmament, and the ether the higher 
firmament, wherein the sun and the planets are 
seated." 2 The following is the sublime descrip- 
tion of Job : " He bindeth up the waters in the 
clouds and the cloud is not rent under them." 
It is evident, however, that besides this earthly 
firmament, so to speak, there is the still wider 
expanse of heaven, those immeasurable regions of 
space which are the great theatre of innumerable 
worlds, whose distance causes them to appear to 
us as one great cloud of light, or as mere specks in 

1 Mr. Gray makes the following regions, ■ by an illusion of the 

important observation : — " The senses, seem to extend to the 

bringing in the l firmament' on heavenly bodies, therefore the sun 

the second day into the spaces and moon and stars are said to be 

vacated by the ascending vapours placed in the firmament, though, 

in no respect limits the expansion in reality, removed to immense 

of this atmosphere to these locali- distances beyond it. It is the 

ties, or indicates then its first crea- usage of the Scriptures to describe 

tion, but yields admission for the the things of the natural world as 

prior circumambient flow of this they appear — as they strike the 

necessary constituent of an ancient eyes of plain unlettered observers ; 

earth." And he quotes from accordingly, in former ages, before 

Professor Bush (Commentary in the true structure of the solar sys- 

loco) : — " The sense of expansion tern was understood, the idea 

is undoubtedly prominent in the naturally suggested by the word 

use of the term ; yet subordinate l firmament ' was that of the blue 

to this is the idea of a ' firmament,' vault of heaven. We now limit it 

or that which firmly supports an to the atmosphere, or rather the 

incumbent weight, as the atmo- region which it occupies." — 

sphere does the masses of watery Earth's Antiquity, pp. 161, 162. 
clouds above. But since the aerial 3 Patrick on Gen. i. 7. 



Third Day of Adamite Creation. 193 

the distant sky. And of this the Psalmist speaks, chap. 
a Who coverest thyself with light as with a gar- 
ment; who stretchest out the heavens like a cur- 
tain ;" and Isaiah, " that stretcheth out the hea- 
vens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a 
tent to dwell in." L 

Thirdly, Chap. I. vv. 11—13. The third Bay. 

v. 11. " And God said, Let the earth bring forth 
grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree 
yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in it- 
self, upon the earth : and it was so. 

v. 12. " And the earth brought forth grass, and 
herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yield- 
ing fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind : 
and God saw that it was good. 

v. 13. "And the evening and the morning were 
the third day." 

We may rather wonder at the appearance of the 
vegetable tribe before the mention of the sun, — be- 
fore that influence of the solar light and heat, 
which is ordinarily necessary to their growth. The 
difficulty is met by what has been before conjec- 
tured, of the pre-existence of the matter of the sun, 
though not with the same degree of luminosity, 
nor possibly under the same general conditions as 
now. On the intention of the sacred writer to 
place them in the order here given, there can, 
however, be no doubt. It is confirmed by his own 



1 Ps. civ. 2; Is. xl. 22; xlii. 5. 




194 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, following chapter, where, speaking of the abso- 
lute origination of all things from the immediate 
hand of God, and of " the day when the Lord made 
the earth and the heavens," he instances at once in 
the " plant of the field " as that which was first pro- 
duced, and thus gives undesigned witness to the 
truth of his own former account, and the perfect 
consistency of the two increases our confidence in 
the writer's fidelity, and leaves no doubt that the 
vegetable products did really precede the solar ar- 
rangements of the fourth day, and of course, there- 
fore, the animal tribes which followed. From this 
precedence of the vegetable to the animal creation, 
it has been argued that the "six days" cannot 
represent or answer to the great geological periods 
(as some have made them do), inasmuch as, in the 
corresponding disposition of fossils, there is not 
found anything answering to this precedence of 
vegetable products over the lower forms, at least, 
of animal life. On the contrary, these are found 
rather to precede the other, if we except only a few 
fucoid weeds of the earlier strata. Without 
exactly adopting the hypothesis in question, we 
must say that such a conclusion scarcely follows 
from the premises. There might surely, consistently 
with the Scripture account, have been somewhat 
of animal life in the bosom of the waters, pre- 
vious to the great upgrowth of vegetation here 
named, though not particularly specified by the 
sacred historian; and though he appears to re- 



Observed Order of Nature. 



195 



serve all mention of animal life till the time when chap. 
the higher species came into being, and the animals — XL_ 
were more complete and perfect in their kind, as on 
the fifth day. Those primitive waters over which 
" the Spirit " is said to have " brooded," need not 
be supposed to have been entirely unproductive of 
some forms of life from the first. 1 

A more observable thing, perhaps, is the close 
coherence in the works of the successive days. 
The order of the first three has been light, air, 
water, earth: i.e. the elements of things (as they 
may be roughly termed), before the things them- 
selves which were to be compounded of them. 
Next came the compound organisms themselves; 
and they, too, in a corresponding 2 order: the 
" sun " and " moon " of the fourth day answering 
to "light" on the first; "birds," to the "air," 
on the fifth and second; and lastly, "creeping 
things, and cattle," to " plants and earth," on the 
sixth and third. Yet the entire absence of any 
attempt to draw attention either to the order or 
the correspondence — such as would inevitably have 

1 See Appendix -note at the end appears, thus : — 1. First Day : 
of this chapter. Light = Fourth Day : The celes- 

2 This correspondence is ably tial orbs, the sources of light, 
stated byDr.Kalisch — the analogy, 2. Second Day: Water and 
(i. e.) between the first three and heaven = Fifth Day: Fishes and 
the last three days. He divides birds. 3. Third Day : Dry land 
the six into two triads. Between and vegetation = Sixth Day : 
some of the days, as between the Ajiimals and man : i.e. the inhabi- 
third and fourth, there seems no tants of the land and the con- 
natural connection, but taken sumers of the vegetation, 
crosswise, the analogy immediately 



196 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, been found in a professedly scientific treatise — 



marks the character of the narrative, and stamps 
it with a simplicity which bespeaks its truth. We 
proceed to the special work of the next day : 

Fourthly, Chap, I. w. 14 — 19. The fourth Day. 

v. 14. "And God said, Let there be lights in the 
firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from 
the night; and let them be for signs, and for 
seasons, and for days, and years : 

v. 15. " And let them be for lights in the firma- 
ment of heaven to give light upon the earth : and it 
was so. 

v. 16. "And God made two great lights; the 
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light 
to rule the night : He made the stars also. 

v. 17. "And God set them in the firmament of 
the heaven to give light upon the earth, 

v. 18. "And to rule over the day and over the 
night, and to divide the light from the darkness : 
and God saw that it was good. 

v. 19. "And the evening and the morning were 
the fourth day." 

There is a slight distinction in the Hebrew con- 
struction between verses 14 and 16, to which we 
have nothing answering in the English version. 
In verse 14 it is as in the English version, "Let 
there be lights/' &c. In verse 16, there is the article 
prefixed in the Hebrew, and it is, " And God made 
the two great lights," &c, which looks as though 
Moses would be understood as adopting a term in 



Fourth Day of Adamite Creation. 



197 



common use among the people of his time for the 
sun and moon, rather than so denominating them 
out of his own mind. This article may also 
influence the whole construction, and give additional 
reason for thinking (what otherwise is sufliciently 
probable) that the words in verse 16, should be 
rather rendered, "And God appointed the two 
great lights — the greater of them to rule the day, 
and the lesser of them to rule the night;" express- 
ing, i.e. the design of these greater luminaries, 
and not their actual creation, which, for aught 
here said, might have taken place at quite another 
time. And if this be the meaning as to the sun 
and moon, much more may we so understand it in 
reference to " the stars," which otherwise seem here 
introduced in an almost unaccountable manner 1 , 



chap. 

VI. 



1 " The words in the text are 
indeed, ' He made the stars also ; ' 
but the whole sentence comes in 
so very abruptly, that one would 
be apt to imagine that after 
Moses' time it was inserted by 
somebody who had a mind to be 
mending his hypothesis ; or else 
was added by way of marginal 
note at first, and at length crept 
into the text itself, as F. Simon 
hath evidenced in several other 
instances. For the fixed stars do 
not seem to be comprehended in 
the six days' work, which relates 
only to this planetary world, which 
has the sun for its centre." — 
Stackkouse, Hist, of the Bible, b. i. 
c. 1. By some the words are 
taken with those immediately 



preceding, thus, " The lesser 
light, to rule the night and (to 
rule) the stars." So Benisch, 
Translation of Pentateuch, London, 
1851. It is finely remarked by 
Buckland, ft This very slight no- 
tice of the countless host of celes- 
tial bodies, all of which are pro- 
bably sims, the centres of other 
planetary systems, whilst our little 
satellite, the moon, is mentioned 
as next in importance to the sun, 
shows clearly that astronomical 
phenomena are here spoken of 
only according to their relative 
importance to our earth and to 
mankind, and without any regard 
to their real importance in the 
boundless universe. ' ' — Buckland, 
Bridgeivater Treatise, vol. i. p. 27, 



o 3 



198 Veracity of Genesis. 

c ^ p - as if they were all made on this fourth day, when 
there is nothing in all the days but what relates 
chiefly to the earth ! We may conceive, then, that 
while some new rule was imposed upon the " greater 
lights," there was imparted some corresponding 
influence to " the stars" also. 

That the masses of the heavenly bodies, including 
even those here particularly mentioned of the sun 
and the moon, were formed and projected into their 
several spheres at some remote period far ante- 
cedent to the fourth day, we have already had 
occasion to propound as the most probable account 
of the matter. The original formation of these 
bodies, subject to whatever modifications might 
afterwards be necessary, and which might have 
made up the fourth day's work, would thus be 
referable, in common with all things beyond the 
immediate sphere of the globe which we inhabit, 
to that great primordial " beginning " of all created 
matter, which Moses lays down in the first verse of 
the chapter. The Eabbinical commentators, as we 
have before noticed, understood it to be the same 
" light," under different conditions, which is 
spoken of on the first, and here again on the fourth 
day. And why not ? In the English, it is true,* 
the word " lights " l in the latter passage carries 
somewhat of an ambiguous sense; but the plural 
use of it sufficiently shows, that " light " and 

i More clearly in the Latin, Heb. rfJSKft.; — evidently differing 
" Luminaria ; " Greek, porq> s j f rom « l ux ^» ^ ^ 



Antiquity of the Heavenly Bodies. 199 

" lights " were not intended as identical. In the cpiap. 

. VI. 
Hebrew, as also in the Greek and Latin, the dis- ■ 

tinction is, however, quite clearly marked ; in the 
former passage it is " light " in the abstract, while 
in the latter it is " lightbearers," or " luminaries," 
L e. implements for holding and diffusing the light. 
It is not, however, in either case expressly stated, 
nor is it necessary to understand, that these imple- 
ments of light were then first created. It is said 
only, " Let them be ... to give light upon 
the earth," and that " God made them," or set them 
in their exact places, " the greater light to rule the 
day, and the lesser light to rule the night." And 
no small instance of skill and power it was to bring 
two such stars into those exact positions with 
respect to the earth, and to set up such a mutual 
interdependence of motion between them, that the 
grand effect of night and day, so beneficial to the 
interests of man, should thenceforward result, and 
should continue on with such singular and constant 
regularity. They were to be " for signs, and for 
seasons, and for days, and years." Now, granting 
that all the stars serve in some degree for " signs," 
in marking out the different quarters of the hea- 
vens; that through their accumulated lustre they 
have an important share in enlightening the night ; 
that they are " signs " to the mariner, and help to 
guide the calculations of science, how incalculably 
more serviceable to man are those two nearer, and 
to us brighter orbs, which are " for seasons " as well 

o 4 



200 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, as " for signs ! " See how, by their means, " seed 

: — time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer 

and winter, and day and night," 1 cease not, but 
are secured to us in admirable and orderly succes- 
sion! See how the night is cheered — the long 
nights at the poles especially, during the six months' 
absence of the sun — by the great reflecting mirror 
of the moon, which in that interval never sets - to 
the inhabitants of those regions ! How, with the 
different rates of speed, both internally on their 
own axis, and as carried round their respective 
centres, both sun and moon keep yet so near 
together in their periods, and the yearly circle is 
undisturbed, and keeps up a regular correspondence 
with the monthly ! Must not the hand of God be 
seen in this? And what more worthy of special 
notice by the inspired historian than the " greater 
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule 
the night?" And all the while, the greater lu- 
minary itself, the earth and all the planets, the 
moon and the other attendant satellites, are poised 
on nothing ! They perform their evolutions, and 
maintain their relative places, in mid air, in the 
regions of comparatively vacant space, and unsup- 
ported by any visible agency ! Thoughts of these 
things tend powerfully to humble and to elevate the 
mind : they oppress and confound, while they delight 
and interest the imagination of every beholder. The 
contemplation of them, therefore, forms a sublime 

1 Gen. viii. 22. 



Relation of the Stars to the Earth. 201 

and appropriate introduction to the volume of chap. 

inspiration, and must necessarily prepossess every : — 

devout mind with noble, though still inadequate, 
conceptions of the skill, the wisdom, and the good- 
ness of the great and merciful Creator. 



The apparent discrepancy between the Mosaic account and the 
observations of Nature as to the precedency of plants to animals 
in the one, and the reverse in the other, seems to deserve more 
special notice here. Geology produces, among the earliest fossil 
remains, nearly as many specimens of animal (in its lower forms, 
at least, as zoophytes, mollusca, &c.) as it does of vegetable life. 
Again, it is observed, that many forms of fishes — many even of 
the most perfect — occur in strata far below those which con- 
tain the great sea-monsters and birds, and which are supposed to 
answer to the " fifth day." The question, therefore, arises, how 
far these facts are compatible with any theory of reconciling 
Geology with Revelation ? Some cut the knot at once, and refer 
all to the Deluge. (See Voices from the Rocks, &c.) Others 
solve the phenomena by supposing an unrecorded, but highly 
probable, fecundity of the primeval "waters." (Gen i. 2.) An 
argument from analogy may, we think, be suggested in favour of 
the latter hypothesis. We find in the record of the animal crea- 
tion (comp. vv. 20 and 24), that " the waters " are commanded to 
" bring forth " before " the earth ; " and we shall presently see 
(Chap. VII. p. 205) that the first recorded "blessing" was upon 
" the waters " (v. 22). The supposition, then, of a similar pro- 
ductiveness of the same element, to bring forth the lower forms 
of animal life in the bosom of the ocean, before any recorded 
terrestrial vegetation, has at any rate some analogy in its favour. 
We may at least say that, as regards marine vegetation (and marine 
animation was evidently contemporaneous with it), it is likely 
enough, upon the strength of this analogy, to have preceded the 
terrestrial vegetation ofw. 11, 12, — even as the marine creatures 
preceded those of the land in vv. 20, 24. 



202 Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. VII. 

The Mosaic Order of Creation continued. 

" Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altee, 
Finxit in effigieni moderantmn cuncta Deorum ; 
Pronaque cum spectent animalia csetera terrain, 
Os homini sublime dedit : coelurnque tueri 
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus." 

Ovid. Met. i. 76—86. 

<l How noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in form and 
moving, how express and admirable ! in action, how like an angel ! 
in apprehension, how like a God ! " Hamlet. 

chap. The work of furnishing the world for its new 

! — inhabitant goes steadily onward — it may be it was 

completed — on the fifth day. Reasons were assigned 
at the 9 th verse, for embracing that and the 10th 
verse in the work of the second day, though it 
appears at first sight to have ended at ver. 8, " And 
the evening and the morning were the second day;" 
and though the words with which verse 9 begins 
("And God said"), more usually occur at the 
beginning than towards the end of a day's work. 
There are reasons for thinking that a similar con- 
struction holds in the description of this fifth day, 
on which we are now entering. In both cases 
(w. 9 and 24) we have only to understand the 
words just quoted in the pluperfect tense, which 



Fifth Day of Adamite Creation. 203 

in the Hebrew is the same as the perfect. 1 The char 



reasons for thus including vv. 24, 25 in the fifth 
day, are, first, That, as the vegetable creation was 
all completed within the compass of a single day, 
it seems natural to expect that the same would 
happen with the animal ; and next, That by this 
means we have an entire day reserved for the crea- 
tion of man himself. And when we observe how 
many things were crowded into the work of the 
last day of all when man was created, — things re- 
lating exclusively to man, — there seems the less 
occcasion to encumber it with more, as we should 
have to do on the other supposition of the fifth 
day ending, as at first sight it appears to do, with 
ver. 23. For, besides the brief account in chapter i. 
we have to allow for the supplementary details 
of chapter ii., the placing in the garden of Eden — 
the giving of the command — of course, therefore, 
the inspection of all the trees of the garden — an 
acquaintance with the beasts, and the naming of 
them — as also " the deep sleep " which " fell on 
Adam " — and the formation of Eve (for this is the 
order in which these particulars 2 occur, chap. ii. 
15-25). When indeed we reckon up all these par- 



1 See a similar construction, 2 Yet this may be uncertain, if, 

Gen. xii. 1 : " God had said to as before, ch. i. 9, 24, we render 

Abraham." Heb., " God said." ch. ii. 18, 21, " God had said," 

So again, Gen. ii. 8, 18 : "God "had caused." See Patrick on ch. 

planted" — "said" — for "God iii. 1, on the time which might 

had planted : " i. e. on the third have been occupied in these seve- 

day "had said." ral transactions. 



204 Veracity of Genesis, 

char ticulars, we have more reason to confess our igno- 
VII. . ° 

* ranee, than to speak too positively on the exact 

measure of time. It may even seem to confirm an 

idea we have elsewhere advocated, of the longer 

duration of the earlier days of the world, compared 

with the twenty-four hours of our present time. 

foregoing observations may at least justify us in 

extending the work of the fifth day beyond the 

limit popularly assigned it, so as to embrace the 

twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth verses. It will 

then run as follows : — 

Fifthly, Chap. I. vv. 20—25. The fifth Day. 

v. 20. " And God said, Let the waters bring forth 
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, 
and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open 
firmament of heaven. 

v. 21. " And God created great whales, and 
every living creature that moveth, which the waters 
brought forth abundantly after their kind, and 
every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw 
that it was good. 

v. 22. " And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit- 
ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, 
and let fowl multiply in the earth. 

v. 23. " And the evening and the morning were 
the fifth day. 

v. 24. " And God (had) said, Let the earth bring 
forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and 
creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his 
kind : and it was so. 



Special Blessing on the Waters. a.. 

v. 25. " And God made the beast of the earth chap. 

after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and : — 

everything that creepeth upon the earth after his 
kind: and God saw that it was good." 

The word " created " is here used for the first 
time since ver. 1, to express, says Patrick, " the 
vastness of these creatures of the deep \ not be- 
cause they were made, as the chaos was, out of 
nothing ; but because it required a greater power 
to make out of the precedent matter moving things 
of so huge a bulk, and of such great agility, than 
to make any other thing hitherto formed." It does 
not occur again till the creation of man himself, ver. 
27. The "blessing" pronounced, ver. 22, on the 
inhabitants of the water especially (the first bless- 
ing in Genesis), justifies the remark that it seems 
typical of the blessing on Christian baptism; and 
so the early fathers understood it. It is also ob- 
servable that the " waters " are made the first 
instrument of production, verse 20, and then the 
"earth," verse 24. As to the distinction of the 
creatures here specified, they are in accordance 
with the usual classification among the Jews, and 
correspond very nearly with those in Psalm viii., 
"all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the 
field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and 
whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea." l 
But not intending to write a natural history, and 
hastening on to the advent of man upon the stage, 

1 Ps. viii. 7, 8. 



206 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, we merely remark further on the completeness of 

! — the furniture now prepared for his habitation and 

use. Above and around, the canopy of the sky, 
" the heavens spread forth as a curtain ;" — beneath, 
the flowery carpet of the earth, — everywhere the 
fragrant blossom and the fruitful tree, the spring- 
ing fountain and the mossy brook, the hill and 
dale, the thicket and the shade, the playful lamb, 
and the bounding deer, the cattle browsing the 
tender herb, and the nobler beast majestically 
pacing the forest ; — such was the scene, and such 
the happy aspect of the place which the goodness of 
God had prepared for his accommodation. 

In announcing the creation of man himself, a 
marked change takes place from the form of com- 
mand, as we had it on the preceding days, " Let 
the earth bring forth," or "Let the waters bring 
forth," to that of mutual consultation as among 
the divine persons of the Godhead. For now we 
seem admitted to the council- chamber of Omnipo- 
tence, and we see before us a work which engages, 
so to speak, the united energy of the blessed 
Trinity. " Let us make man in our image." The 
more perfect creature, the masterpiece of creation, 
the intellectual animal, is to be " after the image of 
God " Himself. " Male and female creates He 
them," partakers alike of that same image which is 
now our most perfect ideal of the human nature, as it 
proceeded originally from the hands of the Creator. 
This is he to whose use all other creatures hitherto 



Sixth Day of Adamite Creation. 207 

made were intended to subserve. To him, as it were, c ™ p * 
all things converge and are tributary, as rivers to 
the ocean, or as the stars of heaven to the earth 
our habitation. In how few and emphatic strokes 
does the sacred penman clash off this noble and 
comprehensive picture ! * The introduction, too, is 
as sublime as the representation itself — that mys- 
terious voice from the Triune Jehovah, "Let us 
make man !" Observe also the threefold, we may 
rather say, the fourfold repetition of the idea, 
which cannot fail to be noticed as we go through the 
passage. 

Sixthly, Chap. I. vv. 26-28, 31. The sixth Day. 

v. 26. "And God said, Let us make man in our 
image, after our likeness ; and let them have domi- 
nion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of 
the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, 
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon 
the earth. 

v. 27. "So God created man in his own image: 
in the image of God created He him ; male and 
female created he them. 

v. 28. "And God blessed them: and God said 
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 
the earth, and subdue it ; and have dominion over 
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
and over every living thing that moveth upon 
the earth. * 



1 With this compare the ac- God formed man of the dust of 
count, ch. ii. 7 : "And the Lord the ground, and breathed into his 



208 



Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. 
VII. 



v. 31. "And God saw everything that he had 
made, and behold, it ivas very good. And the 
evening and the morning were the sixth day." 

The fourfold repetition here of the Divine 
u image " and " likeness," must surely deepen the 
impression, which most readers must have felt 
when this noble passage first caught their eye, and 
its deep meaning flashed upon their thoughts. The 
description may be wanting in that minuteness of 
detail, which would suit some philosophical or pro- 
fessedly scientific treatise. But we are not to 
fancy an Aristotle expounding in exact and logical 
method, the order and interdependence of the 



nostrils the breath of life ; and 
man became a living soul." We 
here learn from what materials 
the outer frame of man was made 
— even the same to which it shall 
return (for " Dust thou art, and 
unto dust shalt thou" return/' Gen. 
iii. 19) : and also whence the 
living particle came — even from 
the " breath" of his Maker. This 
" breath/' because it is plural in 
the Hebrew, some have thought 
to include various spiritual gifts, 
in addition to the animal life. But 
it seems chiefly the intention in 
ch. ii. to enlarge on the physical 
conditions of man's life, and not 
on the spiritual, as we see again 
in the formation of Eve from 
Adam's side, vv. 21-25. Kalisch 
compares Job xxvii. 3, " All the 
while my breath is in me, and the 
Spirit of God within my nostrils /' 
Job xxxiii. 4, "The Spirit of God 



hath made me, and the breath of 
the Almighty hath given me life ; " 
and thinks that, altogether, the 
"breath" and the "life" here 
spoken of go no higher than the 
animal life. But the quotation of 
the words following by an inspired 
authority, and which describe 
the effect of this "breath of life," 
seems to put the matter out of 
all doubt, — viz. that Moses is here 
occupied with merely the physical 
details, and not, as in ch. i., with 
the spiritual and physical com- 
bined. We find the passage quoted 
by St. Paul as an ascription of 
mere " natural " life to " the first 
Adam," which he contrasts with 
that gift of " spiritual " life pro- 
ceeding from "the Second," " The • 
first man, Adam, was made a liv- 
ing soul ; the last Adam was 
made a quickening spirit." ICor. 
xv. 45. 



Man created in the Divine Image. 209 

several parts of the human frame ; nor a Socrates chap. 
. . VII. 
bidding us, in the beautiful structure of the body, 

" in the eyes to see and the ears to hear, in the 
nice guard of the eyelids, in the fencing those lids 
with eyelashes which, like a sieve, strain the dusty 
wind, and hinder it from hurting the delicate 
structure of the eye, to behold and recognise the 
work of an intelligent Being." In the case of 
Moses, it would not have suited with his main 
design to be too nice and orderly in such matters 
of detail. He hastens at once to his great purpose ; 
and carried on by the torrent of his faith, he over- 
leaps minor considerations, and shows himself bur- 
dened with the one great thought of the true des- 
tiny of man, of his superiority to all other bodies, 
and of his direct affinity to the great Being him- 
self from whom all creation sprang. He refuses, 
as it were, to loiter on the threshold ; and rushing 
forward into the arcana of the temple, he lifts the 
veil which discloses to us " Man " in the " image of 
his Maker." 

We propose to devote the remainder of this 
chapter to a fuller development of this idea ; in 
doing which, we need not detain ourselves long 
(though it deserves a place in the description) with 
that old Rabbinical exposition which makes the 
terms of the "likeness" to consist in this: that 
the " soul," or rational principle, " governs the 
body, as God governs the world." " The soul," 
said they again, "fills the body, as God fills the 

p 



210 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, heaven:" " as there is but one God in heaven, so 
in the body the soul is one; — like God, the soul is 
undefiled by bodily pollution ; like God, herself 
unseen, she sees all things ; like God, she sleeps 
not; and as no man is like God, so among men 
none is like another." There is much elegance in 
these conceptions ; but the whole seems open to 
this serious objection, that, whereas, in the regimen 
of the soul over the body in a man, these are both 
parts of the same composition ; in the regimen of 
the Supreme Being over the world, it is not that of a 
soul informing it, but of a Governor wholly distinct, 
separate, and essentially differing from it. Such 
a view might, therefore, give a handle to that fun- 
damental and dangerous error of the Pantheist, 
which would confound the Deity with the works of 
his hands, and resolve into a mere anima mundi 
(or material energy in nature itself) that great 
First Cause of all, who is infinitely above all, 
and is the fountain from which all proceeds ac- 
cording to the good pleasure of His will. With 
the light of Christianity to guide us, we may come 
nearer to a true comprehension of the words. In 
the express promises which the gospel contains of 
renewal after the Divine Image, and in the known 
character of that renewal, we have a safe clue to 
the true nature of the qualities and privileges in- 
tended. That which is offered to be restored must 
plainly be identical with that which was originally 
lost ; and thus discovers to us what that property 



The Possession estimated by the Loss. 211 

was which we may ascribe to man in the original chap. 



completeness of his nature. In the revelation of 
an incarnate Saviour, uniting in His one sacred 
Person the two perfect natures, we have actually 
placed before our eyes the complete realisation of 
the " Image" spoken of. And though the very 
sacredness of the Person precludes us from arguing 
immediately from the God-man to the rest of the 
sons of Adam; yet, under proper limitations, we 
have the authority of the Divine oracles themselves 
for instituting a comparison in some degree. What 
is true of the Son of God in the perfection of His 
nature, is proportionably true, in various derived 
degrees, of those whose representative He became. 
At all events, when we find ourselves exhorted to 
u put off the old man with his deeds, to be renewed 
in the spirit of our minds, and to put on the new 
man, which after God is created in righteousness 
and true holiness," l the question comes before us 
in a most real and practical shape. The difficulty 
lies in our present loss of this image. If the 
subject concerned some merely inferior parts of 
man's constitution, unaffected (if any such there 
are) by the sad consequences of sin, the appeal 
might have been more easily made to actual ob- 
servation of his daily habits and life, and a fair 
inference drawn thence as to his nature and con- 
stitution in those respects. But now the case is 
different. We are speaking of his whole moral, 

2 Eph. iv. 22—24. 
p 2 



VII. 



212 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, physical, and mental condition; and, in forming 
'— a right estimate of it, we have to contend with a 
peculiar difficulty arising from the confessed im- 
perfection and corruption of the whole man. 

We shall begin, therefore, from this point. For 
it may be regarded as the confession of the heathen, 
no less than of the Christian, philosopher, that 
every where there are symptoms of this moral 
degeneracy. Jarring and contending affections, 
enfeebled powers of good, and strong tendencies to 
evil; the better judgment often overborne by the 
strength of passion within, or the force of tempta- 
tion without ; the obliquity of the understanding, 
and the feebleness of the will; these phenomena 
have at all times presented no very flattering 
picture of himself to the heart and conscience of 
man. The strange inconsistency of his nature has 
often dismayed and perplexed him. He has 
marked, with shame and disquietude, how the beast 
with his instinct seems, in his proportion, to behave 
better than man with his reasonable understanding ; 
and how the less perfect creatures in their kind seem 
to have surpassed himself, the most perfect of any 
in following and observing the law of their being. 
Yet if, through this confessed degenerate condition 
of man, when unassisted by the special grace of 
God, we may yet see something left of a better 
mind, something heavenward in its tendency, 
though often overborne to evil, we may surely take 
the benefit of the discovery, to recognise, amidst all 



The Nature majestic in its Ruins* 213 

the deformities of his nature, an original likeness chap. 

of man to his Maker. Who does not see, that there : — 

still remain some lineaments of the Divine simili- 
tude? It is not without significance on this head 
that, in a striking and prominent passage of Holy 
Scripture, man is declared to have the Divine image 
still, at so late a period as when laws were given 
anew to Noah, long after the ravages of the fall, 
and its deadly consequences in the flood. 1 But, to 
come to particulars : What but the remains of good 
is that noble faculty, hence called the " Vicegerent 
of God" in every man's bosom, the Conscience? 
What else are those higher affections, whereby we 
love ? whereby we apprehend and seek the good of 
others, as if it were our own ? What else are the 
social instincts, which go so far to humanise even the 
savage breast ? — the sense of truth and falsehood, of 
right and wrong, of integrity and fraud ? What all 
the other instances of a moral sense? What else is 
it that draws us to a contemplation of the Divine 
nature ? Does not all this argue something of Divi- 
nity in man ? a secret sympathy and bond of union, 
which, though it be somewhat weakened and ob- 
scured, is yet really there, and which indeed is wit- 
nessed to by the very name religion ? For what is 
religion, but a binding back, i. e. the renewal of a link 
originally subsisting, when man came forth in the 
Divine image? And it is in proportion as this 
image is regained that man finds a greater and 

1 Gen. ix. 6. 
p 3 



214 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, growing delight in the study of the Creator and 
the Creator's works. The idea of His affinity 
deepens and improves, as he continues to work it 
out. Such result is dependent, no doubt, on the 
gift of inspiration of the same Spirit, by which the 
image was originally wrought. But who can say 
that the Spirit is ever wanting? Who cannot see 
with what abundance of efflux it goes forth to meet 
those who sincerely seek it, — who find themselves 
dissatisfied without it? who seem to have failed 
hitherto because they forgot or overlooked their 
dependence upon Him? or because, under an im- 
perfect appreciation of the gift of God, they had 
thought of Him as of One afar off, instead of as 
One brought nigh by the intercession of the One 
Mediator? Who can say, further, but that such 
revival of the Divine image is within the power of 
the Gospel — nay, is its very object ? The true ideal 
may have been realised only by that One among 
the sons of Adam, who took our nature upon Him 
without abating the perfections of His own Divi- 
nity ; but it is realised also among his followers, in 
proportion as they are under the operation and 
influence of the same Spirit, and endeavour faith- 
fully to follow His steps. It is that to which the 
hearty endeavours of regenerate man are all tend- 
ing ; it is daily witnessed and felt in thousands who, 
in the humble walks of life, it may be, but in sin- 
cerity and truth are " taking up their cross and 
following Christ," and are seeking to " glorify God 



Accomplishments of Body. 215 

in their bodies and their spirits, which are His." chap. 



We will now seek to gather into one view the 
several particulars of man's nature, which seem to 
be comprised in the sacred portraiture before us. 

1. First, in order, we are perhaps justified in 
mentioning the dignity and majesty of his person, 
together with all those endowments of his body 
which distinguish him above all other inhabitants 
of the earth. The juxtaposition of the clauses in 
ver. 26 may be pleaded as a sufficient authority for 
including these bodily advantages in our view. It 
seems equally in the intention of the writer to ex- 
press this truth, when he says, Gen. ix. 2-6, "And the 
fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every 
beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, 
upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the 
fishes of the sea : into your hand are they delivered. 
. . . Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall 
his blood be shed : for in the image of God made He 
man." And again, Ps. viii. 6, " Thou madest him 
to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; 
Thou hast put all things under his feet." But not 
the dignity alone, or commanding attitude, or such 
other features of the outward form in man are to be 
regarded : to these sterner excellences, so to speak, 
of the man we must add the gentler but not less 
noble qualities of her who was given to be his 
companion. To this we are led by the evident 
parity of rank and eminence attributed to the wo- 
man, where, after declaring the formation of both 

r 4 



216 Veracity of Genesis, 

chap, in the Divine image, it is immediately subjoined, 
" Male and female created he them." Not merely 
in a social sense was it " not good that man should 
be alone," but also " it was not good " in regard to 
the reflection of the Divine attributes. 

To some it may appear trifling to mention these 
bodily qualifications. They are not trifling, when 
we regard them aright, as admirable manifesta- 
tions of the Spirit within. We may think, rather, 
how much of the attitude and air of command in 
Adam was due, not to his bodily part alone, but 
proceeded also, and in a higher degree, from that 
loftiness of his understanding and power of his will, 
which beamed in every look, and displayed itself in 
every limb. Another gift common to both, and 
worthy of special mention, was that eminent gift of 
speech, by which man is distinguished from the 
brute ; by which he converses, and compares ideas ; 
by which he thus becomes susceptible of social im- 
provement, and is naturally a progressive being; 
by which, above all, he praises God, and glorifies 
Him by the open confession of His truth, by prayer, 
and by the fruit of his lips in magnifying and prais- 
ing His holy Name. But with all these advantages, 
the mere bodily part could in no sense adequately 
have represented the image of Deity, unless it were 
combined with that which we shall mention in the 
second place, viz. 

2. A corresponding excellence in the pervading 
and presiding soul. And, therefore, in his mind, 



Accomplishments of Soul. 217 

or intellectual and moral part, in that which chap. 



concerns his inward apprehension of the things 
presented to his senses, in his reasoning powers, in 
the power of the will, subjecting to itself all the 
human appetites and passions, the chief resemblance 
to his Maker was to lie. And that this principle 
of reason, after its first implantation by the fiat of 
the Almighty, became afterwards congenital with 
the bodily element, not merely an addition or 
appendage to it, but interwoven with it in one 
nature, and essential to its very being, seems the 
general conclusion of physiologists. The very 
germ of life in man seems necessarily fraught with 
some higher faculty than is enjoyed by the lower 
orders of creation. To think is with him as neces- 
sary as to live ; and the power so to do, when not 
hindered by accidental disorders of his constitution, 
is bound up necessarily with his very existence. 

3. To the above sentient and intelligent parts of 
man was to be added, thirdly, that great gift of the 
Spirit, which should rule over the whole compo- 
sition of his nature, and be itself subordinate only 
to the Divine will. How far this latter gift was 
made over to him, as it were, in possession, was 
compounded into his nature, and made an inte- 
gral part of himself ; or how far it was by way of 
adventitious aid from without, and dependent on the 
use made of it, revelation does not inform us, nor 
are we able precisely to ascertain. The degrees in 
which it is inherent in the nature of man, or, more 



VII. 



218 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, properly, a supernatural addition, has therefore been 

'— matter of considerable dispute, and we make no 

attempt to decide it here. Putting, however, all 
the above endowments together, viz. body, soul, and 
spirit, and attributing to all that perfection of kind 
in which they originally came forth from the hands 
of the Creator, we find something like an adequate 
representation of the Scripture ideal of human 
nature, without being driven to the absurdity — not 
to say the impiety — of imagining in man the abso- 
lute perfections and attributes of Deity. We have 
found sufficient in these threefold gifts and the 
various endowments which they comprise, to 
establish the truth of the picture drawn by Moses, 
when he declares him to have been " created in the 
image of God." No picture of him, it appears, 
could have been more just, or could more have dis- 
played the Master's hand. We find it realised in 
the harmonious combination of faculties of the 
highest order, of body, soul, and spirit. When the 
spiritual part was in entire harmony with the 
Divine Spirit ; when his whole mind and affections, 
his understanding and will, were in conformity with 
the mind and will of God ; when the contexture and 
temperament of the bodily frame was such, that it 
freely obeyed and co-operated with the higher 
motions of the soul ; a condition must have existed 
approaching as nearly to a likeness of his whole 
nature to the Divine as the earthly can approach 
to the spiritual, or the finite be made like to the 



Spiritual Endowments. 219 

Infinite. And here we see the reason, why it is chap. 

. VII. 

that mere logical acumen, or even the highest 

powers of intellect, do not always, nor necessarily, 
confer superiority of character. " The race," in 
this sense, " is not to the swift, nor the battle to 
the strong " (Eccles. ix. 11), but " God giveth to 
him that is good in His sight wisdom, knowledge, 
and joy " (Eccles. ii. 26). Even a good quality may 
lose its virtue by being cultivated exclusively and 
in undue excess ; and it is the same with the powers 
of the intellect. Under due subordination, and the 
corrections of an humble and faithful spirit, they 
may be regarded as the highest endowment in the 
noblest work of God with which we are acquainted. 
But it is rather the nice balance of all the faculties 
and affections, than the preponderance of any one, 
that gives the best and most satisfactory results. 

It was a doctrine much favoured by the early 
Fathers of the Church 1 , that the "likeness" after 
which man was created was that of the Son of God, 
referring this, not to the incarnate form of the Son, 
but to those spiritual attributes which were His 
from all eternity, as the Word and Wisdom of the 
Father. Thus St. Augustine 2 , " The similitude 
of God, after which man was made, may be under- 
stood to be the Word of God itself, that is, the 

1 Besides the authorities in the blance to the true image of Christ, 

text, St. Jerome says, " The image who is the image of the invisible 

and similitude of God is not the God." — Jerome, in Ezek. i. 

form of the body, but of the mind, 3 De Genesi, c. 16. 
which is fashioned to a resem- 



220 Veracity of Genesis. 

char Only-begotten Son." Again, " The Divine beauty 
of the Son is impressed upon our souls through 
participation of the Holy Ghost." 3 Whether this 
opinion have sufficient authority in Holy Scripture, 
whether it is based on any intelligible distinction 
in the Divine attributes, and how far we can venture 
to attribute to man, in his first estate, powers 
superior to the angels because equal in quality to 
the Son of God, is not for us to pronounce. It is, 
perhaps, enough to believe that there was a real 
communication of Deity to man through the Spirit, 
and that man " partook of the Divine nature," even 
as he is once more invited to do (2 Pet. i. 4). 
From all we know of the Divine purposes, it was 
the intention of the Creator to communicate to His 
creatures, and especially to man, some portion of 
His own happiness. He was destined, it would 
seem, to an immortality of happy service, wherein 
he might advance from stage to stage in knowledge 
of the Divine will, and in the blessed enjoyment of 
the Divine favour. To apprehend God as the chief 
good, and to enjoy Him in all the manifestations of 



3 Clem. Alex. c. Julian, lib. i. Nyssen : " There is in us, because 

p. 25. The Fathers themselves of God's image, the form of all 

dwelt less on the derivation of good, all virtue, all wisdom." De 

the image from the Son especially, Horn. Opif. c. xvi. The reader is 

than upon the intrinsic nature of referred to an able statement of 

the gifts conferred. Thus S. Ba- the general view of the Fathers on 

sil : " The soul of man, from having this head in Scudamore's Essay on 

been created in the image of God, the Office of the Intellect, chaps, 

thought that which was good, and vi. vii. viii. 
knew the enjoyment of it." Greg. 



Danger from the very Perfection of the Will. 221 

His love, this was designed to fill the capacities of chap. 

his heart, and to exercise him in returns of grati- ! — 

tude, adoring love, and obedience. As he bore a filial 
relation to the Creator, and was destined to an 
eternal inheritance of glory, he would not be left 
destitute of capacities to fit him for this distin- 
guished position, as a child of God, and inheritor 
of the kingdom of Heaven. Whatsoever might be 
wanting to fill up the measure of such capacities 
we may safely affirm would be granted to him, and 
would be found among the gifts wherewith his 
nature was endowed. Thus furnished, and having 
all his faculties in perfect adaptation to the purposes 
of his being, there would be no natural impediment 
in man to a perfect conformity to the will of God, 
a perfect obedience to His law, and to a filial love 
and reverence of His Name. And nothing short of 
this would seem to answer to the description of the 
inspired penman, " In the image of God made He 
man." 

If there was what we might venture to call an 
imperfection (as in everything finite must be ex- 
pected somewhere), was it in this, that there was 
no compulsion on his will? and, therefore, no 
necessary immutability in the fruition of all the 
excellences of his first estate ? Perplexing thoughts 
may thus arise, and doubts be insinuated as to 
the original perfection of his nature, if such were 
the conditions of it. Nor are these done away 
when we open the next revealed page in his history; 



222 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, when we find him succumbing to the strength and 
subtlety of the tempter, and deflecting from the 
original law of his being. But whether it may not 
be the law of all finite created being, that habits of 
virtue should be necessary to the complete form- 
ation and stability of virtuous character, and how 
far this principle may extend to the most absolute 
heights of holiness and piety, it is easier to speculate 
than positively to afiirm. Time may be required 
for development in all the higher departments of 
created existence, and a fair field of exercise, that 
the habits may be formed which are necessary for 
such stability and perfection. And what if this 
time was not in the present instance allowed ? what 
if, by inscrutable permission, it was prematurely 
curtailed? and if, therefore, the discipline was ren- 
dered ineffectual and unavailing to the end pro- 
posed ? What if a greater perfection is yet in store, 
it may be, even in consequence of the fall? What 
if, affording scope, as it did, for the intervention 
and exercise of redeeming love and mercy, the very 
failure became a source of greater and more abiding 
strength? And if it be so, we may at least see 
some reason to be less dismayed at the first apparent 
failure of the Divine purpose with man ; and while 
we stand in awe of sin, we may indulge the hope 
that out of evil will come forth, by ways mysterious 
to us, a greater good. And when, as believers in 
revelation, we proceed to unfold its still later pages, 
we there find the direct and infallible assurance 



The Christian Victory. 223 

that the resources of Divine grace and wisdom chap. 

VII. 

were not exhausted by that first catastrophe. - 
Means were at hand, and a purpose in store, to 
rectify the disordered condition, and to restore the 
lost image in man. The Apostle who dwells longest 
on the depth of the degradation, and exclaims, 
u Oh ! wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver 
me from the body of this death?" — strikes at the 
same time the keynote of deliverance, in that burst 
of praise which follows, M Thanks be to God, which 
giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." Here we have provision, not merely for 
pardon and reconciliation, but for the healing and 
recovery of the wounds of sin. A method is 
disclosed to us, which, without disparagement of 
the justice of God, gives full scope to his mercy, 
and enables Him to be at the same time " just and 
the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." 
(Rom. iii. 26.) The gates of acceptance are again 
thrown open, and man returns as a necessary con- 
sequence into free communion with the father of 
spirits ; and becoming again, through member- 
ship with Christ, the child of God, and the inheritor 
of the kingdom of heaven, recovers through the 
operation of Divine grace, and the indwelling 
power of the Spirit, that participation in the 
Divine image which once seemed hopelessly lost. 

What more elevating subject, then, of contempla- 
tion can be imagined than this of man's relation to 
the Most High ? What more admirable than the 



224 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, wisdom, the power, and the goodness by which we 

: — are made capable of immortality? What more 

excellent than that gift of understanding whereby 
we may conceive of, though we cannot measure, 
the Infinite Himself? What more noble than 
that elastic essence of the will, at whose command 
the inferior appetites and passions, all the powers 
of body and of mind, spring into action ; and which 
is destined yet, in some higher sphere, to exemplify 
before assembled worlds the happiness of conforming 
itself perfectly and undeviatingly to the will of God ? 
Endowed with these glorious faculties, imagine 
with what lofty feelings of pure delight must 
Adam have walked abroad, through the fair scenes 
with which he was surrounded ! must have gazed 
upon the heavens above, and upon the earth be- 
neath, in admiration of the Creator's skill ! With 
what delight would he have experienced the power 
given him to utter with his lips the thoughts and 
emotions which filled his heart ! To mark the 
adaptation of all things to his use — the grass grow- 
ing for the cattle and herb for the service of man 
— the song of birds — the expanse of heaven lit up 
with the sun and moon, and with the glorious con- 
stellations of the sky — the repose of night and the 
thrilling call of morning to the works of the day; 
to feel himself the appointed Lord arid Governor of 
the inferior creatures, all of whom were ministering 
to his use and happiness ; above all, to feel himself 
conscious of higher thoughts, capable of seeing the 



Christian Aspirations. 225 

hand of God in all things— of holding converse chap. 
with the Father of Spirits — of living to his glory, 
and in the hope and expectation of a still nearer 
approach to his immediate presence hereafter. 
Could anything be a more perfect picture of bliss ? 
Must it not have been the very happiness of man 
in Paradise, to have enjoyed this consciousness of 
his destiny, and to have lived in the exercise of 
these high privileges and powers? 

On the other hand there is, doubtless, something 
melancholy in the reflection, that so much happi- 
ness should have been lost and forfeited ! Sadder 
still, when a man's conscience accuses him, that he 
himself has been accessory to the loss; — that he 
has not been awake to the high original of his na- 
ture, nor stirred to make any effort to recover it ; 
but may have lived contented with some lower stan- 
dard, some more earthly estimate of himself and of 
the purposes of his being ! — that he has failed to 
look through and beyond the evident degeneracy 
of his nature to the true and original standard of 
excellence, and to aspire upwards to the attain- 
ment of the happiness which he has lost. Yet 
this happiness might still be his. His might 
again be the occupations and the delights of 
Adam in Paradise. They are stored up — and 
even in higher degrees, and with more perfect 
security against all mutation and decay — in the 
better state to which the Christian is called. They 
are made the prizes of the race of life to every one 

Q 



226 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, who, with humble heart and earnest mind and 

VII. 

— — : — manly courage, will press forward to the reattain- 
ment of the once forfeited inheritance. And more 
than this, they are secured to him by express cove- 
nant and promise. It is not in consideration of the 
exact merit of the candidate, but on the most gra- 
cious terms of faith and repentance that they are 
offered. They are put freely within the reach of all 
who with sincere repentance and true faith and 
hearty endeavours, seek earnestly for them. Christ 
who merited them for us, will bestow grace suffi- 
cient to obtain them upon all who humbly seek it. 
They are not, therefore, unattainable and impossi- 
ble objects of desire, mocking our hopes with the 
mere semblance of a blessing, or harrowing our 
minds with unavailing regrets for benefits long 
since withdrawn from our hands. And when we 
feel that we were made for them, as well as they 
freely offered to us, the ambition must surely be 
awakened within us to become partakers of them. 
And can it seem difficult to realise the object of 
this ambition, when even here we have the assurance 
that no inconsiderable progress might be made to- 
wards the perfection and renewal of the fallen 
nature ? The misfortune is men are too apt to look 
downwards to the chains which bind them to earth, 
when they should rather lift up their eyes to the 
blessed links of that love which draws them back 
again to heaven. The Scriptures represent it 
with indubitable clearness, not merely as a desi- 



Assurances of Scripture. 227 

rable contingency, but as a positive duty with chap. 

Christians, that they should exhibit in the present '—- 

life no mean degrees of that thorough transforma- 
tion of the character which befits the image, and 
is the work of the Spirit of God, and which will be 
perfected in the life to come. To this effect is the 
exhortation of St. Paul, already adduced in eluci- 
dation of the meaning of the terms "after God's 
image" (Eph. vi. 21-24), "Be renewed in the Spi- 
rit of your minds, and put on the new man which 
after God is created in righteousness and true 
holiness." St. Peter, describing the " great and 
precious promises " of the Gospel, adds, " That by 
these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature." 
(2 Pet. i. 4.) " By the Spirit," says St. Paul in 
another place, "we are changed into the same 
image from glory to glory." " Of His fullness all 
we " — immediately, perhaps, meaning Christ's 
Apostles and Prophets, but indirectly also all 
other Christians — " have received, and grace for 
grace." (John i. 16.) Let then the love of God 
find admission into the heart, and already His 
image, will be found to have begun there. Let 
the love be accompanied with increasing de- 
grees of holiness, and a steady growth in grace, 
and the Divine image grows with it. And though 
in its utmost perfection it may not be fully 
realised upon earth, the present beginnings will 
be the first fruits of a never-ending harvest — 
the earnests and fortastes of that final manifesta- 



228 Veracity of Genesis. 

C yii' a ti° n °f the S0I1S °f God, which will form the 
blessedness of heaven through the endless ages of 
eternity. 



Alleged human remains in older strata. — ■ Among the uncertain 
data of geological science, up to its present stage of advancement, 
must be reckoned the amount of evidence that exists, that human 
remains are to be found among the deposits of the drift period. 
Should it prove incontestable to be the case, it would not neces- 
sarily follow that a greater antiquity should be assigned to the 
human species than was before imagined, nor would it afford any 
direct evidence for the existence of Pre-adamite man. Among 
the hypotheses which would have to be examined in explanation of 
the phenomenon, would be some very violent action of floods or 
earthquakes (perhaps that of the great deluge itself), whereby 
deep receptacles were hollowed out, and the remains of man 
entombed among the older strata of the earth. We refer to 
some remarks in another place, on the necessity of our having 
many more elements in the data required for the theory of Pre - 
adamite man, than the mere discovery of bones. (See Chap. V. pp. 
161, 162.) Even a few rough implements, picked up among the 
bones, would not suffice ; for these too are of common occurrence 
in the ancient Cromlechs of Druidical times ; yet no one assigns 
them a period of very extreme antiquity. We should require, not 
a few knives and arrow-heads of flint or iron, but the debris of 
large habitations, not to say of costly tombs and monuments. At 
any rate, the caution required would be extreme, and must be 
exercised over much larger areas than have been at present 
explored, in order to separate between original locality and the 
transporting effect of the elements, or even the hand of man him- 
self excavating, in later times, a place of sepulture for the remains 
of the departed. 

We may further remark, that by some Christian writers it is 
even maintained, that the existence of Pre-adamite races of men 
would not be found incompatible with the Scripture account ; 
nor would involve consequences of which we should need to be 
afraid, as prejudicial to the faith of Christians. (See Genesis of 



Alleged human Remains. 229 

the Earth and Man.) On all such points, it would be wiser for CHAP. 

the advocates of Scripture revelation, to withhold from binding : — 

themselves to particular dogmas on one side or the other ; but 
rather to hold themselves free to follow in a more philosophical 
spirit the researches of science and the path by which it leads 
them. 

Among the best-known instances of supposed human remains 
in the older deposits, are the specimens in the British Museum 
and in Paris of the human skeleton in hard limestone from the 
island of Guadaloupe ; marks of feet from Santa in Peru ; bones 
of men said to be mixed up in large quantities with bones of the 
Iryama, tiger, bear, antelope, &c, in certain caves in Franconia, 
in the south of France, in the departments of Aude and Gard, 
and here and there in Great Britain ; and more recently still, a 
bone found by Dr. Dickeson of Natchez, United States, in " un- 
disturbed blue clay." 

As to the latter, inquiry remains to be made. The cave-re- 
mains do not appear difficult to account for. Without supposing 
an earlier race of men, we have only to suppose these bones 
washed down at some later period, from distances where they 
would be mingled on their way with other alluvial matter from 
various strata of the earth older, in many cases, than themselves. 
It is certain, first, that the bones of men, where they occur at all 
in these deposits, occur in extremely small proportions to those 
of bears and other quadrupeds ; and secondly, that there is no 
manner of reason for dating them all alike from the same period. 
And precisely the same may be said of the few implements that 
have turned up, such as spears and arrow-heads, knives of flint, 
and in some cases rough specimens of pottery. We shall cite 
presently the evidence of Dr. Mantell on some of the most re- 
markable of these cave-remains. But where we come to hard 
limestone, and not mere alluvial soils, containing human remains, 
the difficulty is evidently greater. The first difficulty is to ob- 
tain a correct account of all the conditions of the phenomenon. 
Thus, to take the best known instance, the skeleton of a human 
figure from Guadaloupe. One writer (Dr. Young) reports thus, 
" The stone, which I carefully examined, greatly resembles some 
varieties of oolite limestone, like which it contains fragments of 
shells and of corals; the latter, as in the oolite, sometimes re- 

q 3 



230 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, taining their original red colour. The bones are entirely fossi- 
^H- lised, and have no appearance of recent bones." But what says 
Mr. Eichardson (a great authority in Geology) ? " The limestone 
at Guadaloupe .... is a recent deposit, formed by the follow- 
ing process : — The coral reefs which surround the island are 
abraded by the incessant action of the waves. The detritus 
thus produced is drifted to the shore in the state of coralline 
sand or mud, where, by the action of the atmosphere, or streams 
holding carbonate of lime in solution, the mass becomes indu- 
rated, and forms a compact limestone. It is evident that the 
rock was in a plastic state when these skeletons were placed in it, 
and it is also ascertained that the bones are not fossilised, but re- 
tain their animal matter and phosphate of lime. There is not 
sufficient evidence as to the mode in which they have been em- 
bedded, whether they are the relics of a battle, or were depo- 
sited as a mode of sepulture A skeleton now in the Mu- 
seum of Natural History at Paris was discovered in a sitting 
position, which is known to be the usual interment posture 
adopted by the aborigines of these regions." — Eichardson, In- 
troduction to Geology, ch. ix. 1851. The necessity of careful 
examination as to every minute particular, may further appear 
from the following anecdote by the same author, where he pro- 
duces a picture very much in appearance resembling the skeleton 
of which we are speaking, and relates the following : " The 
celebrated naturalist Scheuchzer, who, with very considerable ta- 
lents and attainments, possessed an equal share of credulity, 
wrote a treatise on a fossil skeleton, under the title of Homo 
Diluvii Testis et Theoscopus, the object of which was to prove 
the remains in question to be those of an individual who had 
been destroyed by the Deluge, but which Cuvier decided to be- 
long to a salamander of extinct species and enormous size. A 
similar specimen is placed in the British Museum (Mineral 
Gallery, room iii. case 1)." Introduction to Geology, p. 26. And 
again, it has been remarked, " the femur of the bear is so like the 
human thigh bone, as to be readily mistaken without due caution ; 
see Professor Owen, British Mammalia, p. 96." — Mantell, Won- 
ders of Geology, p. 185, note. Then again, as to the footprints 
at Santa ; — in the last edition of Dr. Mantell's book (often 
quoted in affirmation of the antiquity of these remains), we find 



Bone Deposits in Caves. 231 

the following note; " In former editions of this work a notice CHAP. 

was given of some supposed imprints of human feet on limestone, - — 

figured and described in an early volume of the American Jour- 
nal of Science. These markings have since been carefully ex- 
amined by Dr. Dale Owen, of New Harmony, and prove to have 
been sculptured by the aborigines !" 

The cave-phenomena, as they may be called the most com- 
mon and accessible sort, so, perhaps, they admit of the easiest 
solution. We shall take a more particular description of one or 
two of them, as we find it in Dr. Mantell. Describing Kent's 
Cave , near Torquay, he says, " The lower part of the cave is 
filled up to a thickness of twenty feet with reddish sandy loam 
full of fossil bones. This is covered by a layer of stalagmite, 
from one to four feet thick, which forms the. floor of the cave. 
Upon this is a slight covering of earthy matter, with here and 
there patches of charcoal ; a few human bones and fragments of 
coarse ancient pottery have been observed. Upon breaking 
through the sparry floor, the ossiferous earth is exposed, and, 
embedded ivith the fossil-bones, several flint knives with arrow 
and spear-heads of flint have been discovered. These stone im- 
plements are of the same kind as those found in the tumuli of 
the early British tribes, and unquestionably belong to the same 
period." He proceeds to account for these phenomena, and 
denies that either the implements, or the human bones thus 
discovered in the higher layer of these cavern-deposits, were 
necessarily contemporary with the carnivora whose existence, in 
and about the cave, are here indicated by their fossil-remains. 
" More accurate observations," he says, " have rendered it pro- 
bable that the human remains were introduced at a later period. 
.... The bones of people who perished and were buried, or 
else who sought refuge in these caverns, would become blended 
with the mud, gravel, and debris of the animals already entombed ; 
and a stalagmite paste might in some places be formed by the in- 
filtration of water, as at Bize (Department Aude), and cement 
the whole into a solid aggregate. In concretionary masses of 
stone of this kind, containing bones of the bear and other extinct 
species, human bones, fragments of pottery, terrestrial shells, and 
bones of animals of modern times may therefore be associated." 
Wonders of Geology, pp. 183, 185. 

Q 4 



232 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP. This occurrence of land-shells, and the general absence of 

marine fossils, while it is a mark of less antiquity than we often find 
assigned to the remains just mentioned, is also a distinguishing- 
feature of the remarkable formation occurring in many parts of the 
coast of the Mediterranean, as in the Rock of Gibraltar. Here we 
have bones without end, mostly of extinct species — with abundance 
of land-shells — " leading to the conclusion, that a great part 
of the Mediterranean was once connected land, subject, like 
Calabria, to repeated visitations of earthquake ; that the ani- 
mals which inhabited the country fell into the fissures thus pro- 
duced, and were preserved by the calcareous infiltrations that 
were constantly in progress. Subsequent convulsions, and de- 
nuding agencies, severed the country into rocks and insular 
masses, of which catastrophes the osseous conglomerates are the 
physical and only records." — Mantell, p. 188. 

It has been seen, then, that in deciding on the exact nature of 
any alleged specimen, very careful discrimination is necessary, 
whether in concluding it to belong properly to the human species 
at all, or in referring it to any particular age of the world's exis- 
tence. And if, in the treatment of each particular specimen, so 
much caution is required, much more ought we to be cautious in 
drawing conclusions from the whole class of phenomena unfavour- 
able to the plain account of Scripture. We cannot too often re- 
peat the observations of a great master of science: — "It is in 
the highest degree unwise in the friends of religion, whether in- 
dividuals or communities, unnecessarily to embark their credit 
in expositions of Scripture on matters which appertain to natural 
science. By delivering physical doctrines as the teaching of re- 
velation, religion may lose much, but cannot gain anything. 
This maxim of practical wisdom has often been urged by Chris- 
tian writers. Thus St. Augustin says (De Genesi, lib i. c. xviii.) 
' In obscure matters and things far removed from our senses, if 
we read anything, even in the Divine Scripture, which may pro- 
duce diverse opinions without damaging the faith which we che- 
rish, let us not rush headlong by positive assertion to either the 
one opinion or the other ; lest, when a more thorough discussion 
has shown the opinion which we had adopted to be false, our 
faith may fall with it ; and we should be found contending, not 
for the doctrine of the sacred Scriptures, but for our own ; en- 



Various Opinions. 233 

deavouring to make our doctrine to be that of the Scriptures, CHAP. 

instead of taking the doctrine of the Scriptures to be ours." — — Xlt — 
Whewell, Indications of a Creator, p. 184. 



On the Image of God in man, various opinions. — " Habent illas 
ubique lineas Dei, qua immortalis annua, qua libera et sui ar- 
bitrii, qua prajscia plerumque, qua rationalis, capax intellectus 
et sciential" — Tertullian c. Marcion, 1. ii. c. 9. 

" Man being made in the similitude of God, has a reasonable 
mind, by which he may discern wisdom ; therefore that Life, by 
which all things were made, that Life itself, is the Light, — not 
of all animals, whatever, but the ' Light of men.' " — S. Augustin, 
Tract, i. in Joh. Ev. c. 18. 

" The Creator of the universe by His own word, our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, made the race of man after His own image, and 
gave him power through his resemblance to Him, to contemplate 
and become acquainted with the things that are, imparting to him 
a conception of His own eternity." — S. Athanasius, c. Gent., 
vol. i. 

" We have been fashioned after the true and most exact like- 
ness of the Father — that is, the Son : and His divine beauty 
is impressed on our souls through participation of the Holy 
Ghost. — S. Cyr. Alex, c. Julian, lib. i. 

" There are three constituents of the Divine image. 1. Lord- 
ship over Creation. 2. Knowledge (by reason) and language. 
3. Communion with God." — Wilberforce, Doct. of Incarnation, 
c. iii. p. 65. Barry, Introduction to Old Testament, p. 75. 

" The doctrine of one, personal, holy God, was not the only 
truth on which the law insisted. It unfolded, also, the true 
doctrine of man; his dignity and ivretchedness. It urged not one 
of these great verities, but both : for only where the origin and 
grandeur of the human species are fully apprehended, can we 
hope to understand the turpitude of moral evil, and the real 
nature of the fall of man. The Bible tells us, that there is in 
him a high and God-like element, that instead of having been 
fashioned in the lower model of the brute creation, he came forth 
into the world erect in stature, and impressed with the Divine 
similitude ; that in virtue of this kinship, human life is sacred 



234 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP. (Gen. ix. 6), and that human spirits, on the dissolution of the 
YIL body, return to God who gave them (Eccles. xii. 7). The leading 
property in which the high original of man has ever been dis- 
tinctly traceable, is the freedom of his will, his power of self-deter- 
mination. Here lay his greatest dignity, and here his greatest 
peril." — Hardwick, Christ and other Masters, p. 94, 95. 

" Nowhere has the Godlikeness of man been conceived with 
such purity and sublimity as in the Scriptures 5 the affinity 
between God and man is a purely spiritual one — that of the 
internal faculties, of reason, of imagination, of love. The expres- 
sions "in our image, after our likeness," pre-suppose no visible 
form of the Deity ; they are no remnants of heathen notions 
among the Hebrews ; they do not deserve the hostile attacks of 
many modern critics. It is nothing less than a destruction of the 
very foundation of Biblical theology, to attribute to God any 
quality of corporeity. God governs the world by his infinite 
reason ; is it astonishing that those who were, in some degree, 
destined to be the rulers of the earth, should resemble Him in 
that power by which alone they can uphold their superiority ? 
We are not seriously concerned, if some natural philosophers 
make him the lineal descendant of the monkey, or the Batra- 
chian." — Kalisch, Commentary on Genesis, i. 26. 

"The features in which the first man resembled his Divine 
original, were chiefly the following: — (1.) The moral sense of 
discernment — an inward type of goodness impressed on human 
nature by the hand of God. (2.) Capacity of spiritual know- 
ledge, and of intercourse with God. (3.) Spiritual illumination by 
actual indwelling of the Spirit." — Scudamore, Office of the In- 
tellect, ch. vii. 

" When I consider the admirable frame of my body, made up in 
that elegant, stately, and useful composure ; and when I consider 
the usefulness, amplitude, and nobleness of my faculties, an under- 
standing capable of the knowledge of all things necessary for me 
to know, accommodated and fitted to the perception and intellec- 
tion (though not to the full comprehension) of a world full of variety 
and excellency, of a God full of all conceivable perfection and 
goodness ; a memory able to retain the notions of what I under- 
stand ; a will endued with freedom, whereby I am a subordi- 
nate lord of all my actions, and endued with a connatural pro- 



Man the High Priest of Nature. 235 

pension and appetite imto rational good ; reason and conscience CHAP. 
to guide and direct me in all the inquiries and actions of my VH. 
life ; and, beside this, a soul, the stock and root of all those 
faculties, endued with immortality, and capable of everlasting 
blessedness : when I consider that this soul of mine is not only 
endued with faculties admirably fitted to the life of sense which 
I enjoy in this world, but find in it certain secret connatural 
rudiments of goodness and virtue, and a connatural desire and 
endeavour after a state of immortal happiness : and when I 
consider that this frame, both of body and soul, had its primitive 
origination immediately from the great Creator of all things, and 
although my own immediate origination was from my parents, 
yet that veiy productive virtue was implanted in the primitive 
nature by Almighty God, and the derivation of the same speci- 
fical nature to me was by virtue of His original institution and 
benediction ; and by virtue thereof, that excellency and perfec- 
tion of the human nature in its essential, which was first formed 
by the glorious God, is handed over to me, abating only those 
decays which sin brought into my nature : I say, when I deeply 
and intimately consider these things, I cannot but be sensible that 
that Being, from whom I thus derive this being, is a most wise, 
powerful, and bountiful Being, who could thus frame the human na- 
ture, and thus freely bestow and confer this constitution upon me. 
2. And upon this sense of His wisdom, power, and goodness, I 
must needs entertain it with all imaginable admiration of it, and 
with all possible gratitude for so great and so free a gift. 3. 
And consequently I cannot choose but exercise the choicest affec- 
tions I have towards Him, of reverence and fear of His greatness 
and majesty, of dependence and rest upon His power and good- 
ness, of love to the excellency of His essential perfection and com- 
municative goodness and beneficence. 4. And consequently of en- 
tire subjection unto Him, that upon all the rights imaginable hath 
the most just sovereignty over me. 5. And consequently of all 
due inquisitiveness, what is the will and pleasure of that God that 
I owe so much gratitude, love, and subjection to, that I may 
serve and please Him. 6. A resolved, entire, and hearty obedience 
to that will of His in all things, thereby to testify to Him my 
love, gratitude, and subjection. 7. An external manifestation to 
men and angels of that internal love and gratitude I owe Him, by 



236 Veracity of Genesis, 

CHAP, continual praise and thanksgiving to Him, invocation of Him, 
ZS; reverence of Him, and all those acts of religion, duty, and obe- 
dience, which are the natural proceed of that internal frame of 
my soul towards Him. 8. A constant desire of my soul to enjoy 
as much of this bountiful, glorious, blessed Being as it is possible 
for my nature to be capable of. 9. And because my estate and 
condition in this life is but a state of mortality, and a temporal life, 
an earnest endeavour to have my everlasting soul fitted and 
qualified to be an everlasting partaker of His presence and good- 
ness, in a state of nearer union to Him and fruition of Him, 
in that future life of glory and immortality. 10. And conse- 
quently abundance of circumspection, care, and vigilance, that I 
so behave myself in this state of probation here, that I neither 
lose His favour from whom I expect this happiness, nor render 
myself unworthy, unfit, or uncapable to enjoy it. . . . 

"Almighty God, in the goodly frame of this world, hath mani- 
fested the exceeding greatness of His wisdom and power, as in the 
heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, the stars, the. elements, the 
meteors, the minerals, the vegetables, the animals ; they all make 
up a most magnificent and stately Temple, and every integral 
thereof full of wonder, bears the inscription of the infinite 
wisdom, goodness, and power of the glorious God ; yet still 
all these are but passive, receptive, and objective reflections 
of the goodness and glory of God; there is not a grass in the 
field, nor a tree in the forest, nor the smallest insect animal, the 
fly, the worm, but bear an inscription of the incomparable wis- 
dom of the glorious God ; but yet these cannot actively glorify 
their Maker, they understand not their own original, nor their 
own excellence ; the noblest cedar in the field, nor the vastest 
elephant in the Indies, nor the goodliest whale in the ocean, have 
not the sense of their own excellence, nor from whom they had it, 
nor can actively and intentionally return praise and glory to their 
Maker, for they want an intellective principle to make those dis- 
coveries or returns. 

" The glorious God, therefore, seems to have placed man in this 
goodly Temple of the world, endued him with knowledge, under- 
standing, and will, laid before him these glorious works of His 
power and wisdom, that he might be the common Procurator, 
the vicarious Kepresentative, the common High Priest of the inani- 



VII. 



Existence of Evil Spirits. 237 

mate and irrational world, to gather up, as it were, the admirable CHAP. 
works of the glorious God, and in their behalf to present the praises, 
suffrages, and acclamations of the whole creation unto the glorious 
God, and to perform that for them, as their common Procurator, 
which they cannot actively, intellectively, and intentionally perform 
for themselves. It is true that the whole creation doth objectively, 
and according to their several capacities, set forth the honour and 
glory of their Creator, and cry 'Blessing, honour, glory, and power 
be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for 
ever and ever, 1 Eev. v, 13: and the Psalmist, Ps. cxlviii., calls 
upon them all to perform that duty : but Man, above all visible 
creatures, is able to perform that duty intellectually, and inten- 
tionally, and fitted to be the common Procurator and High Priest of 
unintelligent creatures, intelligently on their behalf to present 
all their praises and acclamations to their common Creator, Lord, 
and Sovereign. 1 ' — Sir Matthew Hale, Primitive Origination of 
Mankind, § i. c. i. ; § iv. c. viii. 

The Effects of the Fall on the Divine Image in Man. — " The 
Fall," though not strictly a Scripture term, expresses, perhaps, with 
sufficient significance, a Scripture idea ; viz. man's degeneracy 
from a primitive state of rectitude in which he was created. The 
occasion and circumstances of his fall are fully related in Genesis, 
ch. iii., and the relation is alluded to as a thing to be taken 
literally, in several passages of the New Testament, as 2 Cor. xi. 3, 
" The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety." 1 Tim. ii. 
13, 14, " Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not 
deceived; but the woman being deceived, was in the trans- 
gression." The first noticeable thing in the Scripture narrative, 
thus literally taken, is the introduction upon the scene of a new 
agent from the spiritual world. Now there are not wanting other 
indications of the real existence of such agents. It is not in 
Holy Scripture alone that we may trace it, but in the traditions 
and sentiments of almost every people. It cannot be without 
some foundation in fact, that we have both the testimony of tra- 
dition and the felt consciousness of the human spirit, everywhere, 
in favour of this scriptural hypothesis. Heathen nations, at the 
very height of their greatest civilisation, have ever shown them- 
selves in fear of some secret enemy, whom it was necessary to 



238 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, propitiate with unnatural sacrifices ; who will otherwise bear 
VH- them malice and illwill ; and who, at the best, is the author of 
many of the calamities, sicknesses, and miseries, to which they are 
continually subject. Towards this being — or rather towards a 
multiplicity of beings of this kind — there was none of that adoring 
reverence, that pious awe, yet secret inward trust, which we asso- 
ciate with any true idea of the Supreme Being, and which, in its 
proportion, would attach to any other being supposed of the like 
nature and attributes with Him. Here we find nothing to ele- 
vate, nothing to attract ; but rather "an abject terror, a forced re- 
luctant service, reacting on the spirit to confound the very idea of 
worship, and to create a sense of alienation rather than true and 
wholesome fear. It is almost needless to say, that the existence 
and personality of evil spirits is abundantly confirmed in Scrip- 
ture. Various are the testimonies on this point. In the Old 
Testament we may refer to Job, i. and ii. ; to 1 Chron. xxi. 1 ; 
to Zech. iii. 1, 2 ; in all of which Satan is represented as taking a 
personal and active part in accusing, oppressing, and persecuting 
the faithful servants of God. But as these might be taken for 
symbolic scenes, and not actual realities, we must seek their true 
exposition in the language of the later dispensation. And here 
we shall find the most unequivocal references to the fact of Satanic 
agency, and the existence and operation of evil spirits generally. 
There is not an apostle, of whose writings we have any remains, 
but bears express witness to this fact. We have it from St. Peter 
(1 Pet. v. 8), " Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh 
about, seeking whom he may devour:" from St. James (iv. 7), 
11 Eesist the devil, and he will flee from you :" from St. John (1 
John iii. 8), " For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, 
that he might destroy the works of the devil." The short Epistle 
of St. Jude speaks of " The angels which kept not their first estate, 
&c, and are reserved unto the judgment of the great day :" St. Paul 
(Heb. ii. 14), " That through death He might destroy him that 
had the power of death, that is, the devil :" and again (Eph. vi. 
12), " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against princi- 
palities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this 
world, against spiritual wickedness," tcl irvEVfxaTiica rfjg 7rovr)piae' 
i. e. " the legions of evil angels" (see Blomf., Wordw., Alford) 
"in heavenly places." Add those many instances in the gospel 



They seduced Man to Evil. 239 

histories of Satan tempting Christ ; of demoniacal possessions ; of CHAP. 

Satan entering into Judas ; of his final struggle with the Redeemer zHi 

of Mankind, during the agony in the garden, and throughout the 

bloody scenes of the Cross : Matt. iv. 1 — 12 ; xv. 23. Luke xi. 

14; xxii. 3. John xiii. 2 ; xvi. 11 ; xii. 31 ; xiv. 30. Take, lastly, 

the authority of our Lord himself, as recorded John viii. 44 ; " He 

(the devil) was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in 

the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh 

a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, and the father of 

it." And how He expressly fastens upon the person of the tempter 

the charge of being principally concerned in the seduction and 

ruin of mankind ; " An enemy hath done this :" " While men 

slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." — 

Matt. xiii. 25, 28, 39. 

This existence of an Evil One solves, in fact, the whole difficulty; 
not, indeed, the difficulty of that remoter mystery, the origin of 
evil ; but that which comes nearer home to ourselves, of the first 
connection of evil with the spirit of man, and how the infection 
of it came into the world. The circumstances are too well known 
to require further detail : the desire of knowledge by forbidden 
means, the fair look of the fruit, the flattered pride, the deceitful 
prospect of some good to be gained ; the artful perversion of God's 
word, turning a gracious permission to " eat freely of all the trees 
of the garden," into a stern prohibition " not to eat" of the only 
one forbidden (comp. Gen. ii. 9, 16, with iii. 1) : and, following 
upon this necessarily, the first suggestion of mistrust, and the 
whole train of disaffected, murmuring thoughts, supplanting the 
faith and trust of the too credulous victims ; the spreading of the 
moral contagion from the woman to the man ; the mutual re- 
proaches ; the anger and remorse ; the shame and concealment ; 
all these are but too well known to every reader. Thus came 
evil into the world. Thus an antagonism of allegiance to the 
one law and service of God. Thus the undermining of that love 
and confidence which ought to repose on Him alone. And all 
this effected by the art and subtlety of the Evil One ! 

Further back we are not permitted to go. But if we are right 
in attaching imperfection to all finite created beings, and thus 
even to the spirits which of old had left their first estate ; the same 
capacity of error which now showed itself in man, must, through 



240 . Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, some process unknown to us, have similarly determined itself in 
* IJ - those other created beings to actual error, which became the 
root of a rebellious spirit, and eventuated in actual disobedience, 
and in the loss of heaven. Once broken out, the consequences of 
sin must irretrievably go on, and the bitter consequences be experi- 
enced. It may, however, be with sin, as it is with diseases. Its 
existence may not necessarily involve its universal diffusion, nor 
even its endless perpetuation. The consequences of it may not 
merely be penal and judicial, but in the end remedial and salu- 
tary. Other orders of angelic natures, and those also who stood 
firm while the rest rebelled, may be put more effectually on their 
guard by their experience in others of the fallibility of created 
wisdom, the extreme danger of setting up a law of self-will, 
and the necessity of leaning more on the succours of Divine 
grace. 

It more concerns us, perhaps, in a practical sense, to mark for 
ourselves the consequences of the sad introduction of evil into 
the world which is our own habitation. To the general deprava- 
tion of all our faculties — to an infused moral weakness and 
blindness — we must add a positive bias to evil of the corrupt 
wills and affections of our nature. The author we have before 
quoted — one who was truly a practical Christian, as well as 
versed in all the niceties of human law — says, " Although the 
fall of man did neither alter the essential constituents of man- 
kind, nor wholly raze out the engravings of those common no- 
tions, sentiments, and rational instincts, that were in them ; yet 
it did in a great measure impair and weaken them, and brought 
in a very great deordination and discomposure, setting up the 
lower faculties in rebellion against the superior, so that the wiser 
and more moderate part of mankind were forced to set up laws 
and punishments, to keep the generality of mankind in some 
tolerable order." — Sir Matthew Hale, Origination of Mankind, 
§ iv. ch. vii. " Hitherto," says another, "man had known good 
positively as the will of God, and evil only negatively as the 

neglect of that will Now the pure vision of truth was 

obscured by the intruding phantom of moral and intellectual 
falsehood, and the will was liable to a spiritual influence of evil," 
(quite distinct from the rebellious power of the appetites and 
passions — what he afterwards calls " a positive idea of evil,") 



Characters of true Obedience. 241 

■which bound it down to a law contrary to the law of God." — CHAP. 
Barry, Introd. to Study of Old Testament, ch. ii. p. 84, 103. YTL 

" In man," writes a bishop of our Church, " as he was origin- 
ally created, there was no natural impediment to a perfect con- 
formity of his will and affections with the will of God. In man, 
since the fall, such an impediment manifestly exists. His appe- 
tencies and affections are now at variance with each other and 
with the Divine will ; so as to realise that distressing picture 
which St. Paul delineates, Eom. i. 18, 19 : 'I know that in me 
(that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing : for to will is pre- 
sent with me ; but how to perform that which is good, I find 
not. For the good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I 
would not, that I do.'" — Van Mildert, Sermons preached at Lin- 
coln's Inn, 1831, vol. i. Serni. 8. 

There seem, indeed, to be different degrees in which dif- 
ferent constitutions are affected by the strength of sin. It is 
not by any means an easy, if a possible task, to distinguish in all 
cases between what is due to defective education and habits, to 
external circumstances, and Other natural causes, and what to 
nature and constitution. We may more safely rest on the decla- 
rations of the Apostle (Eom. iii. 23), that " all have sinned, and 
come short of the glory of God :" i.e. though the degrees of sin be 
not by any means alike in all, yet to one count in the general 
charge all must plead guilty, viz. that of living contentedly, per- 
haps, below the real end of their being, of not giving the first 
place in their hearts, the first-fruits of their understandings, and 
all other faculties, to God ; not " seeking first the kingdom of 
God and His righteousness," in an entire and cheerful confor- 
mity of their wills to His divine will ; — and thus it holds equally 
true of the more decent and respectable, as of open and notorious 
offenders, that they have " come short of the glory of God,'' 1 the 
image in which they were made, and that after which they may 
be renewed. Nay, even the best of men may adopt the prayer 
of the publican (Luke xviii. 13), " God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner." It seems that the will of man requires time to bring it 
into that state of discipline and conformity to the Divine will 
which the order of the Divine government demands. For it is 
not intended to crush that will, and to force upon the creature a 
reluctant service. The pliability of a sycophant obedience is no 

R 



242 . Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, more contemplated than the proud attitude of an independent 
^H* self-will. If obedience be rendered, it must be of a sort that be- 
comes a rational and intelligent being ; one that is based on a 
true relation to God, and a right appreciation of that relation ; 
one that, in this manner, pervades the whole mind, and springs 
spontaneously from the heart; an obedience, not blind to the 
exact nature of its obligations, nor to the reasonableness of the 
call to duty, nor to the advantages which attend its performance ; 
yet, at the same time, an obedience, accompanied with the un- 
faltering acknowledgment of the supremacy of the One Great 
Maker of all, and of His alone right to order all things after the 
good pleasure of His will. It is, in short, the spirit of love to 
Him that is intended to be evoked by all the measures of dis- 
cipline to which the creature, as such, seems necessarily subject. 
This, and nothing short of this, is the ideal of a true obedience. 
The trials which may be necessary for the discipline and perfec- 
tion of such a disposition must be received and borne with a 
patience and fortitude commensurate with the end which they are 
designed to work out. Trials of this kind, together with the study 
of God's word and works, and the faithful use of the means of 
grace, will be found the best outward food and nutriment of this 
love to Him, while the Spirit of God will nourish and cherish it 
within, by the secret light and warmth of His own Divine teach- 
ing, till it becomes an essential and enduring element of character, 
fitting its possessor for the never-ending enjoyment of a higher 
and better state, when the present state of trial shall have passed 
away. 



243 



CHAP. VIII. 

The Mosaic Order of Creation concluded. 



Ov Su Xpicrnavovg lovdat^eiv Kai Iv r<£ aattarii) ff^oXa^etv, dWci spya- 
Z,faQai avrovg Iv Ty o.ut?j rjjx'sp^ ttjv de KvpictKtjv wporifiulvTag eiye Svvcuyro 

cxo^a^Hv. Concil. Laodicen, Can. xxix. 

(< Both names are dear and blest ; 
In each a meaning lies ; 
From making — God did rest, 
In saving — Christ did rise. 

' ' As warp and woof enfold, 

God weaves in one the two j — 
The strictness of the Old ! 
The freedom of the New ! " 

Monsell. 



We had occasion, in our review of the " sixth day," chap. 

to draw attention to the number of objects which, - 

even on the most favourable supposition (viz. that 
of remitting to the fifth day the rest of the animal 
creation), would seem to be crowded into this fol- 
lowing day. The " deep sleep which fell upon 
Adam," 1 and to which we are bid to refer the first 
origination of Eve, must clearly be taken as part of 
that day's work, if we take the first chapter for our 
guide, which assigns to one and the same time the 

1 Ch. ii. 21. 
r 2 



244 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, creation both of Adam and Eve. Whether the re- 

VIII. 

mainder of the events (chap. ii. 15 — 20) are to be 

ascribed to the same interval? or when our first 
parents were placed in the garden of Eden ? when 
the commandment was given them which prescribed 
that they might eat of every tree, save only the tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil? and when "every 
living creature " was " brought before Adam " to 
receive its appropriate name, — are more doubtful 
points. They might well be thrown forward to form 
part of the occupation of the subsequent week 
or weeks, without violence to the text, by simply 
adopting the slight alteration before mentioned and 
approved by Patrick and other commentators in 
the rendering of chap. ii. verse 18, "And the Lord 
had said," instead of " And the Lord said." Bishop 
Patrick says : " It required some time for Adam to 
be acquainted with all other creatures, and to impose 
names upon them. When they were brought into 
the garden, we cannot but think they walked about 
it, and took such a view of it as to be convinced, by 
the bountiful provision God had made for them, 
they had no reason to complain of the small restraint 
He had laid upon them. All which could not be 
performed so speedily as some have imagined ; for 
though God can do what he pleases in an instant, 
yet man cannot, and God Himself did not in one 
day create the world." x We only renew the subject 
here, to illustrate the difficulty of distinguishing 

1 Patrick on Gen. iii. 1. 



Different u Day" Theories. 245 

the time into exact days, even when we come to chap 

. . . VIII. 

those easier parts of the narrative, where the imagi- ~ 

nation is no longer oppressed and overwhelmed 

with the attempt to follow the first opening burst 

of the wide field of creation. It may also help to 

show us the real grounds there are for assigning to 

each day, during that early state of the world, some 

more considerable length than the twenty-four 

hours that constitute our present day. 

In a former chapter we noticed the twofold 

hypothesis, which explains the days either (1) as 

natural days, or (2) as indefinitely long periods, 

corresponding to those in which the great geological 

strata were deposited. There are two other views, 

viz. (8) that which would lengthen the intervals 

from evening to evening, by supposing the days to 

have exceeded at first the twenty-four hours of 

present time, but yet to have been natural days. 

And (4) the vision-theory of Hugh Miller 2 , which 



darkness Mis upon the prophet ; 

gives us in his learned Commentary he sees the Divine Spirit moving 

on the Pentateuch of this vision- on the waters ; he hears the words, 

theory, has extracted chiefly from ' In the beginning God created the 

the more fanciful parts of Mr. heavens and the earth ;' unreck- 

Miller's work : nor can we by any oned ages pass on ; he hears again 

means agree in the justice of his the creative voice — 'Let there be 

criticisms, either of Hugh Miller light ;' myriads of heavy, sunless 

or of the other conciliators of Scrip- days elapse ; the dim light sinks 

ture and Geology. (See below, pp. beneath the undefined horizon ; 

274 — 279 and notes.) Dr. Kalisch it again brightens ; Moses sees 

says : " We see ourselves intro- that the lower stratum of the 

duced into an untrodden recess of heavens, occupied in the previous 

the Midian desert ; here we be- vision by seething steam, is clear 

hold Moses ; a great and terrible and transparent, and only in the 

r 2 



246 



Veracity of Genesis, 



CHAP. 
VIII. 



we shall endeavour briefly to describe. From the 
fact of Moses speaking according to appearance, as 



upper region do clouds appear. 
Darkness descends for the third 
time upon the seer; but again 
the light rises, and there is no 
longer an unbroken expanse of sea ; 
the white surf breaks, at the dis- 
tant horizon, on an insulated reef 
formed, mayhap, by the Silurian, 
or Old Red coral zoophytes, ages 
before, during the bygone yester- 
day." Can this be thought a fair 
representation of Hugh Miller's 
conception, as to the modus reve- 
landi, in this grand scene of crea- 
tion? For ourselves, we have 
read him very differently ; nor can 
we better assent to the somewhat 
severe criticism which follows : — 
"In this manner," he continues, 
" the author, though with a rare 
charm of fascinating eloquence, 
carries out the visions of the six 
days. Do such soaring flights of fic- 
tion demand refutation ? They lie 
beyond the pale both of science 
and criticism, in a sphere where 
reason willingly resigns the sceptre 
to fancy 3 " It is, perhaps, to be la- 
mented that Hugh Miller should 
have attempted to depict the 
manner in which a vision might 
he conceived to have taken place ; 
and not contented himself with the 
simple hypothesis of a vision 
taking place in fact, and what 
was the subject of it. We prefer 
that plainer account of the matter 
in which he calculates the time 
necessary for the cooling down of 
a red-hot surface of molten rocks, 
whereof the crust of the earth is, 



on all hands, considered to have 
at first consisted : a condition of 
our planet which, he justly ob- 
serves, would turn, for many ages, 
the superincumbent waters into 
a dense mass of steam (p. 182). 
"What, in such circumstances," 
he asks, u would be the aspect of 
the scene ? It would be simply 
a blank, in which the intensest 
glow of fire would fail to be seen 
at a few yards' distance. An in- 
considerable escape of steam from 
the safety-valve of a railway en- 
gine forms so thick a screen, that, 
as it lingers for a moment in the 
passing opposite the carriage win- 
dows, the passengers fail to dis- 
cern through it the landscape be- 
yond. A continuous stratum of 
steam, then, that attained to the 
height even of our present atmo- 
sphere, would wrap up the earth 
in a darkness gross and palpable 
as that of Egypt of old, — a dark- 
ness this which even a single 
ray of light would fail to pene- 
trate." . . . "Nor would a planet 
covered over for ages with a thick 
screen of vapour be a novelty even 
yet in the universe. It is ques- 
tionable whether a human eye on 
the surface of Mercury would ever 
behold the sun, notwithstanding 
his near proximity ; nor would it 
be often visible, if at all, from the 
surface of Jupiter. This planet, 
though it is thought his moun- 
tains have been occasionally de- 
tected raising their peaks through 
openings in his cloudy atmo- 



The Vision-theory of Hugh Miller. 

when lie speaks of the sun and moon as the " two 
greater lights," this author infers that he was not 
bound, by the nature of the revelation which he 
received, as to the literal words of his narrative; 
but that a vision of the past being preternaturally 
conveyed to him, he was left to describe it optically, 
and as common observers would do when any 
ordinary scene is presented to their sight. In 
short, that Moses describes his impressions merely 
of what he saw, these impressions being taken from 
the vision which he received, similarly to what 



247 



CHAP. 
VIII. 



sphere, is known chiefly "by the 
dark, shifting bands that, fleaking 
his surface in the line of his trade- 
winds, belong not to his body, but 
to his thick, dark covering." (Pp. 
176, 177, 182.) 

These plain statements seem to 
ourselves of sufficient force, with- 
out calling in the aid of poetic 
rhapsodies to help out the idea. 
But, indeed, Mr. Miller himself 
prefaces the passage quoted by 
Dr. Kalisch with the remark : — 
" Such a description of the crea- 
tive vision of Moses as the one 
given by Milton of that vision of 
the future which he represents as 
conjured up (!) before Adam by 
the archangel ; would be a task 
rather for the scientific poet than 
for the mere practical geologist or 
sober theologian." (P. 187.) 

When Dr. Kalisch remarks, — 
"It is very difficult to conceive 
by what miracle Moses could have 
enjoyed that extraordinary privi- 
lege which this theory claims for 



him ? and how he could actually 
have seen, in a great air-drawn 
panorama, the creation?" &c. — 
it was surely by no other sort of 
miracle than that which " caught 
up St. Paul to the third heaven" 
(2 Cor. xii. 1 — 4), or " opened 
a door in heaven " to St. John 
(Rev. iv. 1) : such, too, as, amidst 
"blackness, and darkness, and 
tempest, and the voice of a trum- 
pet, and the sound of words," 
proclaimed the law, at another 
period, to Moses himself. Pie 
further ascribes many things to 
Mr. Miller which he never says ; 
as, that "Moses was carried to 
some elevation above our planet ! " 
" that he knew how many thou- 
sand years each tableau com- 
prised," &c. &c. And can it be 
said with truth, — "A prophetic 
vision which reveals past events is 
without example or analogy in 
the whole range of the Biblical 
records? See Ezek. viii; Dan. 
ii. 36—38 j Eev. xii. 1—4, &c. &c. 



b 4 



248 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, afterwards happened when he was enjoined to make 

'— the tabernacle and sacred vessels " after the pattern " 

of the vision " shewed to him on the mount." A sort 
of spiritual perspective might thus be supposed to 
have narrowed to his eye the full dimensions of all 
that he saw. A whole world of creatures, over- 
spreading the surface of the earth for a long period, 
might reach his eye in the shape of some of its pre- 
vailing and most conspicuous forms, and the work 
of thousands of years might seem condensed into the 
compass of a single day. Applying this theory to 
the works of the three last days of creation, and 
omitting the rest as less concerned with geological 
considerations, he thus finds in the herbs and trees 
of the third day the representatives of the great 
carboniferous era. u The days," in fact, are re- 
moved altogether from the province of chronology 
to the province of prophetic vision : they are re- 
presented simply as parts of the exhibited scenery, 
or rather as forming the measures of the apparent 
time during which the scenery was exhibited. 
Moreover, " in the character of symbolic days they 
were as truly representative of the lapse of foregone 
periods of creation, as the scenery itself was repre- 
sentative of the creative work accomplished in these 
periods." x Accordingly, to the third of these days, 
and answering to the plants and trees of Gen. i. 1 1, 
12, he refers the extensive flora and forests of the 
great Carboniferous era; to the fourth day (Gen. i. 

1 Testimony of the Rocks, p. 185. 



Foundation of his Hypothesis. 249 

14) the Permian and Triassic periods, which were chap. 
marked by the decline of the previous (Palaeozoic) 
forms, and the first partially developed beginnings 
of the Secondary ones; " while 1 the fifth and sixth 
may be held to have extended over those Oolitic 
and Cretaceous periods, during which the great sea- 
monsters and birds were created, and over those 
Tertiary periods, during which the great terrestrial 
mammals were created." 

It will be observed that the whole of this theory is 
devised to meet and fall in with another and previous 
hypothesis of the days representing longer periods. 
If this be the true account of the matter, and if St. 
Peter's canon be here applicable (2 Pet. iii. 8), " one 
day is with the Lord as a thousand years," we think 
no theory could be safer, none more just, or more in 
accordance with all reasonable ideas of the nature 
of revelation. But to insist on it more strongly than 
this involves not a few difficulties, and many 
subtleties of geological observation, which may 
perhaps require time for their fuller scope and 
development. This Mr. Miller himself admits, and 
takes even some pains to show, that " plants do not 
precede the lower kinds of animals" 2 in the order 
of the observed strata, and yet here we find him 
interposing an entire creation of plants before the 
animals are once spoken of ! He has met this ob- 
jection by saying that the prevailing features only 
of each period are named in the Scripture narrative, 

1 Testimony of the Kocks, p. 175. 2 Ibid. pp. 17, 197. 



250 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, and therefore such lower animals might have 
VIII. . & 
existed before, though not particularly mentioned. 

This part of the question can only, we apprehend, 
be settled by further researches in geology. As to 
the general idea, on which the whole argument of 
Mr. Miller rests, viz. of the revelations to Moses 
having taken place under the form of a vision, we 
believe it to be the most reasonable and simple 
account of the matter ; and the way of speaking of 
it, into which any thinking mind would most 
naturally fall. It has the particular merit of open- 
ing wider than before the question of the duration 
of the days ; and this, whether with Mr. Miller we 
regard them as actually representative of the suc- 
cessive long stages of the world's existence prior to 
man; or whether we see occasion rather to leng- 
then them into less considerable, but still very long 
periods, according to the circumstances of the case, 
periods more closely preliminary to the human sera, 
and subsequent altogether to the laying down of 
the great geological strata. It prevents our strait- 
ening and curtailing them into actual days of the 
present length ; and this, to our mind, is all that it 
does. For that the great protozoic and other suc- 
ceeding and preceding epochs are to be dated as 
altogether antecedent to the " six days 7 work," 
seems to us, after all, the most probable hypothesis, 
and most agreeable to the text of Scripture. Then 
came on the preparation of the earth for the im- 
mediate occupancy of man, which is said to have 



Bishop Ilorsley's Theory, 251 

been a " six days' work," but which we are at chap. 

. . . VIII. 
liberty, through the vision-theory, if indeed it helps : — 

us no further, to conceive of as having really occu- 
pied an indefinitely longer period. For ourselves we 
adhere to the belief, that the strata were disposed of 
during the great antecedent periods ; and we see no 
need for finding them a place among the " days," or 
for otherwise disturbing the impression which would 
be conveyed to an ordinary reader by the literal text 
of Genesis. And without resorting to such a theory, 
elegant and attractive as it is, and well reasoned 
and supported by the author, we cannot forget 
that there is another, and perhaps a more ready 
way, of accounting for the longer duration of the 
twenty-four hours at that spring-time of the world ; 
viz. the slower rotation of the earth round its axis. 
The remarks of Bishop Horsley are here worthy of 
our attention. " In what manner," he says, " the 
creation was conducted, is a question about a fact ; 
and, like all questions about facts, must be deter- 
mined, not by theory but by testimony ; and if no 
testimony were extant, the fact must remain un- 
certain. But the testimony of the sacred historian 
is peremptory and explicit. No expression could 
be found in any language to describe a gradual 
progress of the work for six successive days, in the 
literal and common sense of the word ' day/ more 
definite and unequivocal than those employed by 
Moses ; and they who seek to admit figurative 
expositions of such expressions as these, seem to be 



252 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, not sufficiently aware, that it is one tiling to write 



vni 



a history, and quite another to compose riddles. 
Moses describes the days as consisting of ' evening 
and morning. ' By what description could the word 
be more expressly limited to its common meaning, 
as denoting that portion of time which is measured 
and consumed by the earth's revolution on her 
axis? That this revolution was performed in the 
same space of time in the beginning of the world 
as now, I would not over confidently affirm; but, 
whatever was its space, a day was still the same 
thing in nature — a portion of time measured by 
the same motion, divisible into the same seasons of 
morning and noon, evening and midnight, and 
making the like part of the larger portions of time, 
measured by other motions." l In confirmation of 
what is here observed, it is added by Bishop Gleig 2 , 
" If the original state of the earth, when first 
formed out of the chaotic mass, was rest, and the 
laws of nature were the same as they are now, it is 
impossible to conceive, that her different motions 
can have commenced with their present velocity ; for 
such a violent change from rest to motion would 
have reduced the globe a second time to chaos, and 
shaken it into atoms. The annual and diurnal 
motions of the earth must indeed at first have been 
extremely slow, and gradually accelerated till they 
reached their present velocity." 

1 Horsley, Serin. III. on Mark 3 Annotations on Stackhouse, 

ii. 27. b. i. c. iii. 



Institution of the Sabbath. 253 

Chap. II. vv. 2, 3. The seventh Day. chap. 



v. 2. " And on the seventh day God ended his 
work which he had made ; and he rested on the 
seventh day from all his work which he had made. 

v. 3. " And God blessed the seventh day, and 
sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from 
all his work which God created and made." 

Such are the words in which, according to the 
most received opinion 1 , we have the first institution 
of the Sabbath. This was not, however, the uni- 
versal opinion of the early Fathers, and is open to 
some dispute. Of one thing we may be certain, 
that "rest," in the literal sense of the term can 
never be applied to the Creator. It can only be in 
some relative sense, — a sense commensurate with 
the infinite distance which separates our ideas of 
the creature and of the Creator, — that we can with 
any reverence, and propriety of reason, adopt the 
description of the inspired writer, that " God rested 
from all his work." The Chaldee version renders 
it, " God was delighted with," — i.e. He regarded 
with satisfaction and complacency — " the work 
which he had made;" according to that of the 
Psalmist, " The glory of the Lord shall endure for 



1 In Suicer we find, for this 2a£6arov. Among later commen- 
opinion, Epiph. De Hceres. lib. li ; tators, for, Corn, a Lapide, Ma- 
Theodorns; Chrysostom; Theodo- sins; against, Bochart, Estius, 
ret, Qucest. xi. in Gen.: — against, Vetablus. Vide Poli Synops. ad 
Tertullian; Athanasius; Euseb., Gen. ii. 3. To the latter we 
Prcep. .Ev. lib. vii. § 6 ; John have to add, among the moderns, 
Damascenns, Thesaurus, in voce Paley. 



VIII. 



254 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works." 1 Any 
material idea of rest is quite set aside by that single 
declaration of our blessed Lord, "My Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work." 2 By some, who would take 
the expression more literally than the Chaldee 
version, the " rest " is explained as a suspension or 
discontinuance of the earthly creation ; — the great 
work of ordering, upholding, and governing the 
universe remaining, as ever, in full operation. At 
least, they say, we must avoid the idea of labour 
and fatigue, which can only apply to the creature ; 
and understand a relative rest, or termination of 
the six days' work. . It appears surprising that 
another idea of " rest " has not, that we are aware 
of, been adduced in explanation of the passage; 
though it is an idea of frequent occurrence in 
analogous passages of Scripture, and is certainly not 
by any means incompatible with our highest and 
most reverential idea of the Divine Being. When 
the ark of the tabernacle was set down at any 
halting-place during the march through the wilder- 
ness, — or in later times when it was carried from 
city to city, or to its ultimate destination on the 
Mount, — the language of Scripture was, "Here 
will I dwell, and this shall be the place of my 
rest." "And when it rested, he said, Keturn, 
Lord, to the many thousands in Israel." 3 Now 
if a place may be said to furnish a " rest " for the 

1 Ps. civ. 31. 3 John v. 17. 

8 Ps. cxxxii. 14; Num. x. 36. 



Metaphorical Sense of Rest, 255 

Most High, — because he there receives the worship chap. 



of his people and the glory due to his Name ; — for 
the like reason, assuredly, and with the like con- 
descension to the material apprehensions of men, — 
may a day be spoken of as the day of his " rest," 
on which He receives such worship, and which is 
specially set apart for the same. And such, it 
seems, was the " seventh day ;" and therefore God 
not only " rested " on it, but also " blessed and 
sanctified it" to all future generations of the world. 
There is a difference in the Hebrew and Bible 
version, at that memorable passage in the fourth 
commandment of the law of Moses, which is not 
marked in the Prayer-book version ; for, whereas 
in the latter the words run, " Wherefore the Lord 
blessed the seventh day and hallowed it," the 
Hebrew and Bible versions have it \ " The Lord 
blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it :" which 
leads to the idea, that it was not specially the 
seventh day of the Jewish Sabbath which received 
a Divine blessing, and was peculiarly set apart for 
Divine worship, but " the Sabbath " generally, i. e., 
one day in seven, which might be variably fixed, ac- 
cording to the altered propriety of the times. 

If from the institution of the Sabbath, we proceed 
to inquire how far it was observed from the begin- 
ning, we find at once several traces of a public form 
and stated place of Divine worship ; variously called 
in Scripture the "face of the Lord f u the house, — 

* Ex. xx. 11. 



VIII. 



256 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, the altar, — the presence of the Lord," — " where 



VIII. 



God records his name," — " where men call upon 
the name of the Lord," — " where the Lord gives 
his blessing," l and as there was a stated place, 
so we doubt not there was a stated time ; and this 
was, most likely, the seventh day. " Seven days " 
seems, accordingly, spoken of, as a marked and 
recognised division of time. " Noah sent forth a 
dove," we read ; " and he stayed yet other seven days, 
and sent forth the dove, which returned not again 
unto him any more." The law to Abraham runs, 
" He that is eight days old shall be circumcised 
among you ;" that is, seven days after the child is 
born he shall receive that rite. Again, "Joseph 
made a mourning for his father seven days." 
Among the heathen nations we have not, perhaps, 
the same evidences of this weekly division of time. 
But in Hesiod some obscure tradition of it occurs, 
where he speaks of the seventh day (of the month) 
as specially sacred, because thereon " Apollo was 
born of Latona," 2 — a tradition in some degree con- 
necting the sacredness of the number with an in- 
distinct notion of the creation as the reason and 
occasion of it." These notices of a weekly subdi- 

1 Gen. iv. 3, 14, 16 ; viii. 20 j appropriating some place to that 

xii. 8 j xiii. 4, 18 ; xxviii. 16, 17 ; use." — Mede, On the Reverence of 

Ex. xx. 24, &c. &c. "When Mo- God's House. 
ses erected the tabernacle, it was « _ § # # Kal <g^ hpbv ^ ap 

tanquam recepti moris, as a thing Tj? yap 'AiroWwva xpvffdopa ysiva- 

of custom, and as mankind by tra- to Ar\Tw." 

dition had learned to accommo- "Epya gal 'flju. 

date the worship of their God, by And Eusebius quotes from Linus : 



Was the Sabbath instituted in the Wilderness. 257 

vision of time, however rare in profane writers, and chap. 

. VI1T. 

scattered even in the sacred history, are yet sufficient 

to turn the balance of probability in favour of the 
opinion which traces the original institution of the 
Sabbath to the first beginning of mankind. It 
acquired a fresh sanctity under the law of Moses. 
It is first distinctly mentioned on the occasion of 
the congregation of Israel murmuring in the wilder- 
ness for want of bread, when a miraculous supply 
of manna was sent them from heaven. On the 
sixth day it was provided that a double quantity 
should be sent ; and whereas on all common days 
the manna would not keep till the morning, on the 
seventh day it was miraculously preserved ; and 
Moses said to the people, " This is that which the 
Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy 
Sabbath unto the Lord." 1 Paley, with others, con- 
siders this transaction in the wilderness to have 
been the first actual institution of the Sabbath; 
but considering the traces of it which have been 
adduced from the history of the patriarchal times, 
it seems rather probable, that the double provision 
on the sixth day had reference to an already 
existing division of time into weeks, and conse- 
quently to some previous, though faint and ill- 
observed, distinction of the seventh day. 



'EgdojjLary d' 770T rsTtXeafxeva Travra the Creation, according to the 

rervKTcti. — Prcep. Evang. xiii. 12. shorter reckoning of the Hebrews ; 

Hesiod lived b. c. 900, i. e. 400 according to Hales, 3900 years, 
years after Moses, and 2500 after x Ex. xvi. 23. 



258 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. With the abolition of the whole Jewish ritual, 
VIII. . . 
their Sabbath also, as regard their own peculiar 

observance of it, was abolished. Christ claimed to 
be " the Lord of the Sabbath ;" and strictly as he 
bound himself to fulfil the whole law for man, 
he began even in his own time to relax the 
severities of Jewish and Pharisaical observance. 
But yet, as regards the original Divine sanction, 
and the principle of setting apart days of peculiar 
sanctity to God's immediate worship, this day was 
not and cannot be abolished. Christ, in what he 
taught, both by precept and example, dealt with 
the Sabbath in no other way than he dealt with, all 
positive rites and ceremonies. He maintained 
them in their reasonable and well directed use ; 
he exposed them as the subterfuges of the hypo- 
crite and the Pharisee, when, upon plea of ob- 
serving them, they overlooked the weightier matters 
of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. To remind 
men of this great principle, and of the danger of 
resting in the mere outward rite, or of substituting 
a legal righteousness for a spiritual law of life, — 
the great Christian festival was altered from the 
seventh, or last day of the week, and observed on 
the first day. The frequent meeting of Christians 
on this " first day " of the week, was alone an inti- 
mation, that they received some express injunc- 
tions to that effect from their Divine master. But 
there wanted not reasons in the very nature of the 
the case. On that day He himself rose from the 



Testimony of the Fathers. 259 

dead : in the week following lie appeared amongst chap. 
them, and showed himself to the twelve on the : — 

same day; and on the same, again, the promised 
gift of the Spirit descended upon them at the great 
feast of Pentecost. It appears from various pas- 
sages in the Acts, that, while they thus celebrated 
the first day, they continued for a time to observe 
the seventh also, i.e. the Jewish Sabbath. The 
Apostles Paul and Barnabas frequented on that 
day the synagogues of the Jews 1 ; and we else- 
where learn that the Jewish Christians in many 
places felt themselves still bound to the observa- 
tion of their ancient Sabbath. Ignatius, in the 
second century, writing to the Magnesians 2 , warns 
them against the Judaising method of observance, 
and bids them rather to make the Sabbath, a day 
a for the study of God's word, and for quiet em- 
ployment, and not (as the Jews seem to have 
kept it) for mere bodily rest, for eating stale food, 
and measuring the distance they walked, some- 
times even for idle dancing and frivolity," 3 u After 
the Sabbath," he adds, " every lover of Christ is 
bound to celebrate the Lord's Day." We have 
thus a broad distinction at first kept up between 
the days of Jewish and Christian observance. The 



1 Acts xiii. 14, 42 ; xvi. 13. rr\v avaaraa\.\iov^ rrjv ficunXiSa, t)]V 

2 Ep. ad Magnes. It is in virarov ttckj&v twv rj/xsp&v. — Pair. 
the same passage that he calls Apostol. vol. ii. p. 105 (ed. Rus- 
the Lord's day "the queen and sell). 

prince of all days :" ti)v Kvpiaiajv, 3 Patres Apostol. vol. ii. p. 103. 

s 2 



260 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, famous testimony of Justin Martyr is to the same 

VIII. 

'— effect. "On the day called Sunday, there takes 

place an assembly of all the dwellers in the cities 
and country to the same place, and the memoirs of 
the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets are 
read as long as time admits. Then, when the 
reader has ceased, the presiding minister delivers 
by word of mouth, the admonition and exhortation 
to the imitation of these good things. After this 
we all rise up together and offer prayers ; and 
when we have ceased from prayer, bread is brought, 
and wine and water; and the president offers up 
prayers as well as thanksgivings, according to his 
power, and the people signify their assent by 
saying, Amen. And the distribution of the conse- 
crated elements, and the reception of them by 
each takes place, and they are sent by the deacons 
to those who are not present. And those who are 
in good circumstances and are so inclined, each 
according to his own purpose, give what they 
think fit ; and that which is collected is deposited 
with the president, and he assists the orphans and 
widows, and those who are in want, from sickness 
or any other cause, and those who are in bonds, 
and sojourners (being strangers), and, in short, 
provides for all who are in necessity. And we all 
jointly make the assembling together on the Sun- 
day, because it is the first day, on which God, 
having changed darkness and inert matter, created 
the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again 



The Lord's Day. 261 

from the dead ; for on the day before Saturday chap. 

'J «/ T7-TTT 



they crucified him, and on the day after Saturday, 
which is Sunday, having appeared to his Apostles 
and disciples, he taught these things." At what 
time the sanctity, as it were, of the seventh was, by 
general agreement of the Church, transferred to 
the first, we have no precise account. It seems to 
have been a natural result of circumstances, and 
particularly of that gradual decay of the Jewish 
polity, which followed the destruction of their city 
and temple. That by degrees the Sunday, or first 
day of the week, took the place of the other in the 
estimation and practice of the Christian Church, 
there can be no doubt. It was made a public law 
under the first Christian Emperor *, that none but 
necessary works should be done on that day, which 
was to be called, as of old, the Lord's day. And 
St. Augustine says 2 , "it was called by that name, 
on purpose to teach us, that it ought all to be con- 
secrated to the Lord." Its other name of Sunday 
was derived from what we before noticed out of 

1 See Sozom. Hist. Eccl. lib. daici Sabbati in Dominicum diem 
ii. c. 8 ; Niceph. lib. vii. c. 46. transferre, ut quod ipsi in figura, 
The Lord's day (Kvpiaia) t)fxspa) nos celebraremus in veritate." — 
was not a new name given by lb. quoted by Wordsworth, Greek 
Constantine. We saw it before Testament, Matt, xxviii. 1. Dr. 
in Ignatius, see p. 259. See also Wordsworth elegantly and justly 
Rev. i. 10. observes : " The Jewish seventh- 

2 " Ut ipso nomine docerent, day Sabbath died and was buried 
ilium totum Domino consecratum with Christ, and rose again with 
esse debere." — August. Serm. xv. Him the first day of the week, 
"Ideo sancti doctores Ecclesias and became the Lord's Day." 
decreverunt omnem gloriam Ju- 

s 3 



VIII. 



262 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. Hesiod, that the Greeks were supposed to dedicate 



VIII 



this day to Apollo, or the Sun. But by whatever 
name we call it, there is something remarkable in 
the coincidence that it was really to Christians, 
what the seventh was to Adam, — the first in their 
new career of hopes and duties. In reference to 
the works of. creation, it was indeed the seventh ; — 
and as the seventh, it might have acquired fresh 
sanctity to the Israelites, through the events in 
Egypt ; but to Adam, the representative of the 
whole Church, it was — as it is to that Church 
itself — the first day. He had never before risen 
to the labours of a working day ; but he is called 
from the first to consecrate the beginning of his 
days, and the first fruits of his thoughts and affec- 
tions to God. And so it is now. Christ on that 
day became the first fruits from the dead. On the 
same, He sent down the first fruits of the Spirit. 
Christians, therefore, following the order of the be- 
nefits received, have adopted the same day, and con- 
stantly observe it, in the spirit though not after the 
letter of the law given to the Church under the elder 
covenant, to celebrate the gifts and blessings of the 
New. They find in it, almost unconsciously, the ful- 
filment of the Psalmist's words, " This is the day 
which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be 
glad in it." 



Evidences of a Scheme gradually developed. 263 



Concluding Observations. 



The writings of Moses hold no ordinary place in 
sacred literature. They exhibit the commence- 
ment of a scheme 1 imperfectly developed at first, 
but running through and pervading the whole 
course of Scripture. They furnish the first link 
in the great chain of revelations which lead up, by 
gradual and successive stages, to the establishment 
of Christianity itself. In the promised seed of the 
woman — in the royal Priest Melchisedec — in the 
sacrifice of Isaac — in the eventful history of Joseph, 
the protector and preserver of the brethren who 
had betrayed and delivered him over to death — in 
the institution of the passover — in the whole ofiice 
and character of the great Jewish Lawgiver, as well 
as in the sacred furniture and mysterious rites of 
the Tabernacle, we have the first glimpses, and the 
ever-growing types and shadows of the " greater 
prophet " that was to come into the world. And 
all these are recorded by Moses : on the veracity 
of his account they all depend for their Divine 



1 In Mr. Currey, Hulsean Lee- of the subject will be found ably 

tures, 1851, and Barry, Introcluc- and fully discussed. 
tion to Old Testament, this part 

s 4 



CHAP. 
VIII. 



VIII. 



264 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, origination or historic truth. But for that truth 
we need not fear. It is guaranteed to us by the 
known jealousy with which, for many hundred 
years, the Jewish nation guarded their national 
records, and the pride with which they cherished 
their national distinctions. It is confirmed by the 
testimony of later writers, sacred and profane, as 
well as by a comparison 1 of the earlier traditions of 
other countries, concerning, particularly, the flood, 
the ark, the first seats of civilisation, Abraham, 
Moses himself, and the Kings of Israel. 

There is another kind of evidence which deserves 
to be considered, viz. the manifest harmony sub- 
sisting between the several parts of the Mosaic 
revelation and the more perfect features of the 
Christian ; a harmony only to be accounted for by 
regarding them as parts of one and the same design, 
prepared and executed by one and the same design- 
ing Mind, though not developed at once nor within 
the compass of a single age. That same Tabernacle 
and its sacred rites and furniture — those compli- 
cated ceremonies of the Levitical law and priest- 
hood — are absolutely stripped of all significance, till 
we regard them as so many preparatory steps to- 
wards the introduction of a better covenant, to be 



1 Most decided testimony is i. § 1 ; Jenkins's Antiquity of 

borne by Pagan antiquity to the Scripture, vol. i. pt. 1 ; Hariner's 

chief circumstances of Patriarchal Observations on Scripture; SirWil- 

and Jewish history. See Stilling- liam Jones's Asiatic Researches ; 

fleet ; Orig. Sac. b. iii. ch. ii. — v. ; Bryant's Mythology ; Harcourt's 

Faber's Horce Mosaicce, vol. i. b. Doctrine of the Deluge. 



Typical Events of Jewish History. 265 

developed in time to come. But once possessed of chap. 

this clue to their meaning, and coupling it with all ~ L 

subsequent links in the order of development, we 
observe such an intimate connection and dependence 
between the successive parts of the scheme, and 
such a convergency of the whole upon the future 
kingdom of Messiah, as necessarily implies the pre- 
siding and directing hand of Him who alone " sees 
the end from the beginning." The same long-ex- 
pected Seed, who in the time of Abraham would 
have been looked for as a second Isaac, the loved and 
only son — in that of Moses, as a second Redeemer 
from, it might be, a worse than Egyptian bondage — 
would, in after times, be yet more distinctly imaged 
forth in the victories of Joshua, in the establish- 
ment of the throne of David, in the princely and 
peaceful reign of Solomon. The very troubles and 
reverses of the subsequent reigns, the frequent 
lapses and ultimate degeneracy of the people, the 
captivity to Babylon, and the final subjugation to 
the Roman power, tended still to throw light on 
a coming dispensation, which should far surpass 
in excellence the brightest times of Judaism, and to 
prepare the minds of the people for the advent of a 
spiritual in contradistinction to a temporal Messiah. 
But how astonishing a fact, that in One Divine 
Person all the various types and shadows should 
be found at last to centre, and to receive a full 
accomplishment ! How difficult for man, how im- 
possible for the most artful and accomplished im- 



266 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, postor, to have framed even the semblance of a 

VIII. . 

; — character in whom all these requirements should 

meet ! And it was not merely that the temporal 
should adumbrate the spiritual; not merely that 
men should gaze on the strange phenomenon of so 
many types being realised, and so many prophecies 
fulfilled ; — but every stage in the long series of dis- 
pensations antecedent to the coming of Messiah was 
in reality a distinct process of preparation for it. 
Every fresh dispensation was paving the way, and 
breaking up the ground over different parts of the 
world : it was preparing fresh channels and facilities 
for the future spread of the Gospel of Christ. The 
sojourn in Egypt was fitted to accomplish this 
purpose, by displaying in the midst of a great 
people the terrors of the Lord, and vindicating the 
superiority of the God of Israel over the vain idols 
of Egyptian worship. Something of the seeds of the 
true religion would hereby be sown abroad among 
the nations of the south. The wisdom and wealth 
of Solomon, attracting the admiration of distant 
potentates, — the captivity into Babylon, and the 
dispersion of the ten tribes, — would contribute to 
spread it further to the east and to the north. Sub- 
sequent dispersions by war, or settlements in peace, 
by bringing the chosen people into contact with 
other civilised nations, would help to carry out into 
distant lands the knowledge of the true God. And 
thus a highway would be cast up, and an ensign 
unfurled, to herald the coming of Him who was at 



Providence necessarily concerned in such a Scheme. 267 

once the Son of David and the Hope of all the ends chap. 

of the earth. Not less remarkable were the circum- — 

stances which, concurrently with these events, 
brought about the great prevalence of that beautiful 
language of the Greeks, the use- of which was 
already so general, that even the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament were usually read in the Greek 
version of the Septuagint. The union of the 
civilised world, in most countries of the East and of 
the West, under the Roman sway, and the reign of 
a general peace, were no less providentially ordered 
to be another element in " that fullness of time," 
when, as an apostle declares, it pleased God to 
" send forth His Son," and " set up the throne of 
David for ever and ever." When we reflect on 
these things, when we observe closely the many 
successive steps, evidently prepared and designed 
by one uniform intelligence, to lead up to one great 
end clearly known and conceived beforehand ; to- 
gether with the many attendant circumstances, 
which were all overruled and directed to work out 
the same end; it is impossible not to acknowledge 
the finger of God, as the only reasonable account 
of so vast a plan, extending over so many ages, and 
conducted by such regular and consistent steps. 
The thing to be accounted for is not, as we before 
observed, a few scattered miracles here and there in 
the thread of the history, — nor even those by which 
the Messiah Himself announced His divine authority 
and the coming of His kingdom ; nor yet the strange 



268 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, phenomena which attended His death and resurrec- 

VIII 

— tion, and the subsequent ministry of His apostles ; 

but a steady and settled plan, clearly traceable 
from the embryo-state, so to speak, of the earlier 
covenants with Noah, with Abraham, and with 
Moses, up to the final consummation itself, when 
the mystery which comparatively " had been hid 
from ages and generations was now made manifest, 
and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to 
the commandment of the everlasting God, made 
known to all nations for the obedience of faith." 1 

It would be highly interesting to trace the 
several parts of this settled plan, as it developed 
itself through all the stages of the sacred history. 
But this labour we must leave to others ; and many 
have already gone before us in the work. In the 
foregoing pages it has rather been our object to 
select one particular stage, and to illustrate 
one leading part of the great dispensation. And 
this we have viewed, not so much in connection 
with the final end and purpose, as in its own 
peculiar features and character. We have directed 
our attention rather to the internal than to the 
external evidence for the truth of the revelation. 
The other is perhaps a wider and more fruitful 
field; but this has its interest and advantages too. 
It has called us to notice the first beginnings of 
that wondrous history of God's church, and how 

1 Col. i. 26; Horn. xvi. 25, 26. 



Pervading Unity of Design. 269 

the foundations of it were laid in the chosen people chap. 

VIII. 

of old. We are here in company with Moses, the '— 

venerable leader and lawgiver of Israel, and one of 
the most noble and generous spirits of any age. 
We see him in contact, on the one hand, with the 
wisest and most civilised nation of his age, and, on 
the other, with all the waywardness, the weak- 
nesses, and the follies of an infant people, under- 
going the first rudiments of an education for a new 
and peculiar polity. We have seen him laying 
down at once his authority and his life, with the 
same meekness and self-possession with which he 
had employed both in the service of his country 
and of his God. We have examined the details of 
his life and character ; we have tested the truth of 
his writings in several subordinate points of 
ethnology, history, and physical science, as well as 
in their higher bearing upon religion and morals. 
We have gone along with him to a remoter anti- 
quity still : we have together touched the confines of 
space, and feebly counted the first pulses of time. 
We have advanced with him to the formation of 
the heavens and of the earth ; we have seen how 
" The Lord established the world by His wisdom, 
and stretched out the heaven by His understand- 
ing." (Jer. li. 15.) To this we have added, lastly, 
the relation in which he stands to all subsequent 
revelation, and the long but well tempered chain 
which links the Mosaic with the Christian cove- 
nant. The same God which spake, in the bush 



270 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, and in the cloud, to His servant Moses, spake after- 

— wards " in divers manners to the prophets," and 

has "now at length spoken to us by His Son." But 
along the whole line of spiritual communication, 
there runs the evidence of an unity of design and 
purpose. One part fits on to another as no human 
art could have made it ; and all have a manifest bear- 
ing upon the great consummation which the Gospel 
age brought in, and which is still in progress, till the 
earthly kingdom shall be exchanged for the heavenly. 
With this we might bring our subject to an end. 
But having in these last chapters introduced so 
much on the earlier records of creation, and as the 
connection of geological science with the Scripture 
statement is a subject on which considerable interest 
still continues to be felt, it may be desirable, before 
we conclude, briefly to recapitulate the substance 
of what has been advanced on that head, and what 
it is that we have principally designed to show. 

In criticising, then, minutely the cosmogony of 
Moses, it has been our endeavour to vindicate 
rather the literal sense of it than any other ; and 
at the same time to clear it from any real dis- 
crepancy with the latest discoveries of science. 
But we have not undertaken to decide that the 
literal sense is in all cases the only true, or the 
most correct one. We are disposed rather to 
admit, that in those things which transcend alto- 
gether the limits of human knowledge, and which 
lie beyond the reach of the tests that may be 



Expressions taken from optical Impressions. 271 

applied to other subjects of inquiry from the col- chap. 



lateral lights of history and philosophy; — that 
here there is often room for a more mystic sense, 
not possible for us altogether to unravel and bring 
down to the exact level of our finite understand- 
ings. And especially we would admit the possi- 
bility of the revelation having been made to Moses, 
in the shape of some vision, some mystic scene 
presented to the eye of his mind; in such a shape 
as would leave the description of it very much 
dependent on the subjective impression on the 
part of the individual influenced ; rendering, there- 
fore, too close a restriction of the words employed 
to their literal acceptation at once irreverent and 
absurd. We are, moreover, prepared to admit 
that the manner of the sacred writers in general 
is, to adopt the common phraseology of life, rather 
than the more exact language of an advanced and 
refined philosophy : to speak of the sun, for instance, 
as "rising" and "rejoicing to run his course" — 
and to designate the heavenly bodies after their 
apparent and not after their actual magnitudes : — 
that it was not their aim to enlighten the world 
in matters of science, so much as to lead up the 
mind from what is visible and material to what 
is invisible and spiritual: — to set fort Ii the great 
truth of the unity and sovereignty of the One 
true God, who alone created the heavens and the 
earth: — that, though there is not so much room 
to speak after the appearance, with geological ob- 



VIII. 



272 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, iects, as with astronomical ; because in this case, the 
viii. . . 
'- — phenomena consist rather of things hidden from 

the view; of strata and fossil remains not obvious 
to the eye of a superficial observer, — yet if we 
place the subject before us in the light (which is no 
improbable light) of a vision, embracing different 
successive pictures of the earth's surface at different 
epochs — such a mode of speaking comes again into 
operation : — that, on the other hand, this very con- 
sideration of the objects observed by geology being 
not on the surface, might equally tell towards an 
opposite conclusion, viz. that such matters as the 
great geological strata, and as the supposed succes- 
sive epochs of the world's existence under other 
conditions of life and climate and physical con- 
stitution, would not come under the cognisance 
of the sacred writer at all, but would be most 
naturally omitted altogether in an account con- 
cerning only that condition of the earth which 
comes under the eye, and which belongs to it as the 
seat and habitation of man. l Such being the 



1 The vision-theory, which we has worked out his theory. He 
have before shown to he per- argues from the physiology of 
fectly admissible in speaking of the fossil world, from the evidences 
Divine revelations (see Chap. V.), there are of a comparatively long 
has been with much ingenuity, hazy period, during which no 
and, indeed, with much force, sun, like that of the " fourth " re- 
applied by a writer of the day to corded " day " could possibly have 
support the geological view of illuminated the immense forests 
the "days" being long periods. of ferns and all the products 
We should wish for space to do of the great carboniferous sera, 
justice to the admirable pains and much less the primeval waters 
ability with which that writer and first emergent lands. The 



This Principle applicable Geologically. 273 

opposite views, we have left the decision with chap. 
others; under the conviction, that both are com- : — 



great quantity of oxygen which 
would be suddenly discharged into 
the atmosphere upon the appear- 
ance of the solar light on the 
" fourth day' ' would account for the 
marked development of animal life 
and its many new varieties during 
the great Permian and Limestone 
period which then set in. But it 
would be in vain to attempt, in so 
narrow a compass, any adequate 
representation of all the argu- 
ments adduced by Jir. M'Caus- 
land. Suffice it to say briefly, 
that the common objection to 
this theory, founded on the pre- 
cedence in observed nature of 
animal life to land-plants or vege- 
tables, while the account in 
Genesis would seem to reverse 
the order, is most ably met, by 
observing that animal existence 
might very well be imagined to 
have been going on within the 
bosom of "the waters," unseen 
and unobserved, and therefore 
unrepresentable to the eye of the 
" Seer," so that, believing that 
Moses was enabled only to write 
what he saw, we are at liberty to 
infer, though it be not actually 
expressed, that certain forms of 
animal life were really co-existent 
with the primeval "waters" 
themselves, especially from the 
time when "the Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the 
waters." The following quota- 
tions will sufficiently explain this 
writer's view : — " There is, more- 
over, a plain reason, which we 



learn from geology, for this some- 
what indirect mode of announcing 
the submarine creation, so as not to 
be confined to any one of the days 
or eras of creation ; and that is, that 
the organic remains of the Cam- 
brian, Silurian, and Devonian 
strata show that the existence of 
submarine animals may have com- 
menced, and in all probability did 
commence before the dawning of 
light on the deep, and was, we 
know, continued subsequent to 
that event, and that some of the 
species, viz. fishes, were not in 
existence until the commencement 
of the work of the third day. 
There are, in fact, three classes 
of submarine animals : first, 
zoophytes and bivalve mol- 
luscs, without visual organs, 
and which, therefore, may have 
existed before light; second, the 
higher classes of molluscs and 
crustaceans, furnished with organs 
of sight, and which must have 
come into existence after the crea- 
tion of light; and third, the still 
higher class of vertebrate fishes. 
The first class was created on the 
first day, before the dawn of 
light ; the next, on the second 
day, after the appearance of light ; 
and the last we know to have 
come into existence contem- 
poraneously with land vegetation, 
viz. on the third day of the crea- 
tion. So that the creation of this 
portion of the animal world must 
have extended through three at 
least of the Mosaic days, and 



274 



Veracity of Genesis, 



CHAP. 
VIII. 



patible with the text of Scripture : and though the 
latter is, we think, the simplest and most natural, 
there is also great beauty in the other, and it has 
been supported and advocated with much ability, 
and with the most laudable desire to maintain the 
authority of holy writ, by opening for it fresh 
points of contact with the advancing science of 
the age. At the same time we have no sympathy 
with-— we altogether protest against — the coldness 
and unfairness of the view which would deny the 
duty and deprive us of the privilege of attempting 
any reconciliation at all between the two sides in 
question: — between the statements of Scripture 
and the observed facts of geology. The cosmogony 



could not, therefore, consistently 
with truth and accuracy, have 
been announced as a separate item 
of creation, confined to any one of 
them; and had the Mosaic record 
declared that the submarine 
animals were created on the first, 
or on any single day of the crea- 
tion, it must have been contra- 
dicted by geologists." " There is 
a further, and as it appears to us, 
a more satisfactory reason for the 
form of expression which has been 
adopted by Moses in this place for 
the structure of this portion of his 
narrative. The scene of the crea- 
tion was, as we have already sug- 
gested, in all probability, com- 
municated to the divine historian 
through the medium of a vision,and 
if so, he could only have recorded 
or described what had met his eye, 



or was communicated to his ear ; 
and, accordingly, he records that 
part of the creation which he saw 
or heard, and not that part of it 
which he could not have seen or 
did not hear. He therefore an- 
nounces the Divine Fiats which 
he heard, and the consequent 
dawn of light, the formation of the 
atmosphere, lifting up the clouds, 
and the appearance of dry land 
and vegetation, all of which he 
saw, omitting that which he could 
not have seen, viz. the submarine 
animals, and only announcing, 
with respect to them, what may 
have been communicated to his 
senses, as to Ezekiel in the vision 
of the valley of dry bones, that 
the Spirit (irvev/xa) of God was 
moving on the waters, breathing- 
life into them." 



Astronomical application of the Principle. 



275 



of Genesis has long stood the shock of advancing 
science, in the astronomical department. Here reve- 
lation has been harmonised with the conclusions of 
philosophy ; and no violence, no fanaticism has been 
charged upon those who have interested themselves 
to trace out the harmony. Not Genesis only, but 
scattered passages throughout the sacred volume, 
depended on the issue of the trial ; it was clear that 
they must stand or fall together under the test 
which the science of the astronomer 1 was prepared 



CHAP. 
VIII. 



1 The most frequent reason for 
apparent discrepancies between 
Scripture and science is the ne- 
cessity, in a Divine revelation, 
of accommodating the language 
to the ideas of men, so as to be 
intelligible in all times and coun- 
tries, and under all conditions of 
human progress and society. (See 
some remarks on this subject in 
a former chapter, p. 132.) We 
add the following powerful il- 
lustration of the argument : 
u Science is constantly teaching 
Us to describe known facts in new 
language, but the language of 
Scripture is always the same. 
And not only so, but the language 
of Scripture is necessarily adapted 
to the common state of man's in- 
tellectual development, in which 
he is supposed not to be possessed 
of science. Hence the phrases 
used by Scripture are precisely 
those which science soon teaches 
man to consider as inaccurate. 
Yet they are not on that account 
the less fitted for their proper 
purpose j for if any terms had 



been used adapted to a more 
advanced state of knowledge, 
they must have been unintelligi- 
ble among those to whom the 
Scripture was first addressed. 
If the Jews had been told that 
water existed in the clouds in 
small drops, they would have 
marvelled that it did not con- 
stantly descend ; and to have ex- 
plained the reason of this would 
have been to teach atmology in 
the sacred writings. If they had 
read in their Scripture that the 
earth was a sphere, when it ap- 
peared to be a plain, they would 
only have been disturbed in their 
thoughts, or driven to some 
wild and baseless imaginations 
by a declaration to them so strange. 
If the Divine Speaker, instead of 
saying that He would set His bow 
in the clouds, had been made to 
declare that He would give to water 
the property of refracting different 
colours at different angles, how 
utterly unmeaning to the hearers 
would the words have been ! 
And in these cases the expres- 



t 2 



276 



Veracity of Genesis, 



CHAP. 
VIII. 



to apply. The test was applied, and the Scriptures 
stood; their authority was unshaken by the result. 
A like trial is now challenged by the more recent 
discoveries in geology. And why the like har- 
mony is to be despaired of ; — why we are to desist 
from seeking it ; — why it is to be denounced as 
folly, or looked upon as mere shuffling and 
" evasion," when such an attempt is made, we are 
utterly at a loss to cemprehend 1 1 There may not 



sions, being unintelligible, start- 
ling, and bewildering, would have 
been such as tended to unfit the 
sacred narrative for its place in 
the providential dispensations of 
the world." — "Whewell, Indica- 
tions of a Creator, pp. 175, 176. 

1 Yet such is the language 
of the learned author of a recent 
critical commentary on the Pen- 
tateuch : " It is indeed a very 
convenient way of restoring har- 
mony between the Bible and the 
natural sciences by asserting, that 
the production of the starry host, 
and the vast geological epochs, 
lie before the work of the six 
days; by making the first two 
verses a carte blanche, on which 
everything might be crowded 
that disagrees either with astro- 
nomy or geology, and by main- 
taining that the condition of the 
earth, such as it is at present, and 
as it is adapted for human habi- 
tation, is the sole object of our 
chapter." .... u But this is not 
to harmonise, but to separate." 
.... Such persons, "by a 
cowardly manoeuvre, forsake the 



true arena of the dispute, and in- 
trench themselves behind a few 
harmless verses." . . . . " Judi- 
cious criticism protests both 
against the stratagem and the 
argument. ' ' — Kalisch's Commen- 
tary, General Introduction, p. 50. 
Yet, he admits, " this is by far 
the most prevalent opinion among 
theologians " (p. 2). And again, 
" From very early times it has 
justly been supposed that the 
first verse of our Book describes 
the creation of matter, or of the 
universe in general, whilst the 
following part of the chapter 
treats of the arrangement and 
distribution of matter, of the for- 
mation of the earth, and of the 
beings which people it. This 
opinion was entertained by many 
of the early fathers of the chm'ch, 
and has been adopted by many 
later theologians and critics. 
Most of the modern followers of 
this opinion believe that an in- 
finite interval of time elapsed 
between the creation of matter 
recorded in the first verse, and 
the formation of the universe (?) 



Probability of successful Result. 



277 



be the same conspicuous visible phenomena to 
deal with in the case of geology. But the prin- 



CHAP. 
VIII. 



in its present admirable order, a 
period sufficiently extensive to 
account for the various and re- 
peated changes both in the con- 
dition of the earth and the 
sidereal systems ; so that, in fact, 
the first chapter of Genesis does 
not fix the antiquity of the earth 
at all " (p. 48). Nor do the ex- 
positors of the Miller school fare 
better with Dr. Kalisch : any 
thing like " creative pictures," 
"visions," "hieroglyphics," "pan- 
oramas of creation," &c. (p. 
48), is intolerable in his sight. 
But while he will have nothing 
of "flights of fiction " and "fancy" 
in criticising Hugh Miller, in 
another place he makes poetry 
the whole genius and spirit of 
the Hebrew cosmogony, and 
spends many pages in explaining 
how poetically they conceived of 
nature, and how little they cared 
for the exactitude of science ! 
(See pp. 19-27.) With the same 
consistency he tells us the sacred 
writers were boimd to speak scien- 
tifically, and according to true 
matter of fact, in those parts 
where narrative was evidently 
intended (p. 50, § 10). And 
again (p. 28), " If the Scriptures 
are not bond Jide truth, but in 
many points a convenient accom- 
modation to prevailing absurdities 
and childish ignorance," (who 
says this of them?) "where can 
we with confidence say they are 
in earnest, and that their doctrines 
claim the authority of absolute 
truth ? ... i If the sublime acts 



of creation, as described in the 
first chapter, are not serious truths, 
of what other parts can we expect 
it ? If a book which is intended 
as a guide and a preceptor, with- 
holds, on many momentous 
questions, designedly, its better 
knowledge and convictions, it has 
necessarily forfeited, in a great 
measure, that esteem and con- 
fidence which alone secure its 
authority (p. 28). It is simply 
untrue that the Bible entirely 
avoids physical questions ; it has, 
in fact, treated the history of 
creation in a most comprehensive 
and magnificent manner ; it has 
evidently not withheld any infor- 
mation which it was in its power 
to impart" (p. 2). Thus the 
Hebrew writers, and especially 
those who claimed inspiration, 
were bound to divulge the whole 
secrets of nature, and relate boldly 
all the facts, which would clearly 
be equivalent to solving at once 
all the difficulties of science ; — and 
yet we are told in another place 
they utterly abjured science, and 
spoke always after the popular 
mode of conception ! " The He- 
brews had no predilection for 

positive sciences Though 

they excelled all nations in sub- 
limity of thought, they were 
inferior to all in practical 
studies ; if they obtained some 
scanty scientific results, they soon 
forced them under the dominion 
of religion, and made them assume 
an unsecular character" (p. 41). 
And who, we would again ask, 



t 3 



278 



Veracity of Genesis. 



CHAP. 
VIII. 



ciple is the same. There is the same reason in the 
one case as in the other, for seeking to reconcile 
the two sides of the account ; — to inquire how far 
the statement tallies with the facts ; or to what 
extent the Scriptures may have been purposely 
silent, and may have omitted to record the great 
primordial stages of the world's existence. The 



are the writers who " make the 
Scriptures a convenient accommo- 
dation to prevailing absurdities ? " 
(P. 28.) Who says " the sublime 
acts of creation, as described in 
the first chapter, are not serious 
truths ? " Not, we can assure 
him, those whom he is opposing-, 
and who simply affirm that it is 
here and there the custom of the 
Scripture writers, on intricate 
points, to adopt a popular phrase- 
ology ; and who, far from ignoring 
the statements in Genesis, take 
them all for most liberal and 
11 serious truths." It seems ra- 
ther that our critic himself must 
have been in some poetic mood, 
when we find him seriously pro- 
pounding such an explanation as 
the following, "That the Bible 
expressed, in every respect, and 
on all subjects" (the italics are his 
own,) u what it considered (!) to 
be the truth." This personifica- 
tion of the Bible, or speaking of it, 
rather, as a "considering" machine, 
is somewhat curious and amusing. 
But to pass this, and to attend 
only to the substance of the re- 
mark : The assertion is, that the 
Bible way of speaking, whatever 
be the subject, — be it even physics 



or metaphysics, — is always strictly 
according to the fact ; and that to 
condescend, in its language, to 
the ordinary way of speaking on 
such subjects would be a dispa- 
ragement of its sacred authority. 
Contrast this with another de- 
claration at p. 51 : The Bible, "in 
this account of the creation, ex- 
presses facts which the researches 
of science cannot sanction, and 
which were the common errors of 
the ancient world" Who is it 
now that imputes to the Scrip- 
tures "a convenient accommo- 
dation to prevailing absurdities 
and childish ignorance I " 

We see much to admire in 
the goodly array of geologic 
facts which Dr. Kalisch has ad- 
duced, and even in the tone in 
which he seeks to soften down 
needless animosities. But we 
cannot accept the character which 
he endeavours to fasten on that 
large school of theologians, who 
have recognised in the first two 
verses of Genesis the expression 
of a time large enough to account 
for all unrecorded phenomena, 
but which yet have left an in- 
delible impress on the rocks and 
fossil strata of the earth. We 



VIII. 



The harmonising Principle defended. 279 

vision-theory is certainly that which most brings chap. 
into play, and draws most upon, the observed rule 
of the Scripture writers in matters of scientific de- 
tail, of speaking more according to the appearance 
than in strict agreement with the discovered nature 
of the things. If Moses saw the things in vision, — 
if a kind of distant prospect of them was presented to 
his spiritual eye, — there is no absurdity in believing, 
that he would have described them as he saw them ; 
and just as he has described the sun and the moon, 
and as the motions of the heavenly bodies in general 
are described by the sacred writers. And whether 
he does this or not, we may be content to take his 
account as we find it ; but not awkwardly and 
unnecessarily to impute contradictions where there 
are none ; and to intimate the existence of some 
great blunder somewhere, such as the weak faith 
of mortals is ever apt to suspect in those who 
boldly take the side of revelation, though they 
cannot always find a ready solution of every diffi- 
culty that may occur. Till we hear of some better 
arguments than have yet been adduced against it, 
we shall not be deterred from entertaining the 
question of the harmony between Nature and Reve- 
lation, for which we have now been contending. 

cannot agree to call it an " eva- which makes Genesis the mouth- 

sion," because they allow for piece of a great popular delusion 

what is wwrecorded, while they of the time, upon the handsome 

receive what is recorded as positive excuse that it was doing its best, 

and " serious truth." Much less and not "designedly" giving 

can we accept his own theory, circulation to error ! 

t 4 



280 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap. Let it bear ever so remotely on the claims of 
viir. . . . J 

~ '— Genesis to be an inspired book, we cheerfully give 

it a place among the credentials of so important a 
history. We have seen the connection which sub- 
sists between that history and the final establish- 
ment of the Church of Christ; and this must ever 
give a fresh interest to the proofs by which the 
authority of its author, and his claims to inspira- 
tion, may be sustained and vindicated. With this 
view we have followed him in his life — we have 
examined the letter and endeavoured to extract 
the spirit of his writings ; — we have viewed him 
in his individual character, in his office, and in his 
typical capacity; and, lastly, we have pointed out 
the relation in which he stood to all coming dis- 
pensations. To reflect on these things is to con- 
firm our faith in Christianity itself. " The law was 
given by Moses," but there were not wanting even 
under the law some prospective indications of the 
"grace and truth which should come by Jesus 
Christ." And now, when that truth is established, 
we may well look back with continued admiration 
on the steps by which it was introduced, and by 
which the world was gradually prepared for its 
reception. 

The laws and principles of the Gospel have, it is 
true, their foundations deeper than in the law given 
by Moses, or in the revelations imparted to him. 
They are firmly rooted in the depths of our nature, 
and, to a great extent, are a transcript of the " law 



Objective Character of Divine Dispensations. 281 

written in our hearts," The very central article chap. 

. . VIII. 

of the Christian faith — the Son of God incarnate in 

the form and nature of man — finds its counterpart 
in the natural aspirations and yearnings of the 
humanity to reach and ally itself with the Divinity. 
Yet it has been the constant order and method of 
the Divine Providence to feed and draw out, as it 
were, the inward faith by outward signs and insti- 
tutions. There has always been an objective 
teaching, corresponding to the inward testimony of 
conscience and the natural law of the mind. Such 
institutions were coeval with man. They began 
with him in Paradise, and have followed him along 
the whole line of his subsequent history. In Para- 
dise there was given him the law of the Sabbath, 
the law of matrimony, and lastly, as a test of his 
obedience, and as an acknowledgment of God's 
sovereignty over him, the positive injunction to 
abstain from the fruit of the forbidden tree. In the 
time, and under the dispensation of Moses, such 
positive institutions came to the full. They had 
the additional object of prefiguring the promised 
seed, and they prefigured it with a force, and under 
a variety of emblems, unknown to any previous 
age. In the strange combination of offices in the 
same individual, — of Priest and Prophet, of Me- 
diator, Ruler, and Judge;- — in the typical sacri- 
fices, and in the Lamb for burnt-offering, and in 
some other circumstantials of the law to which 
we have already adverted, Christ Himself stood 



282 Veracity of Genesis. 

chap, almost revealed to the view. Thus rich with 

VIII. 

* prospective allusions to the future blessings of 

Sion was the covenant of Mount Sinai. And while 
the law of nature remained still in force — while 
the covenant with Abraham was as valid as 
before — (for, speaking of this covenant, the apostle 
says, " The law, which was four hundred and thirty- 
years after, cannot disannul it, that it should make 
the promise of none effect," 1 ) — men were taught 
above all to realise the time when the promised 
Seed should eventually arrive, and the connection 
of all past dispensations should fully appear. It was 
not till many hundred years afterwards that the 
time actually arrived. But no sooner was it come, 
than the consistency of the whole scheme of type 
and prophecy was clearly shown : the shadows disap- 
peared, and the substance was realised. And now, 
" Blessed are the eyes which see the things which 
we see; for I tell you," says the Divine Redeemer 
himself 2 , "that many prophets and kings have de- 
sired to see those things which ye see and have not 
seen them ; and to hear those things which ye hear 
and have not heard them." Yet the full effulgence 
of the noonday light cannot wholly obliterate our 
recollections of the early morn. A grateful sense 
of the past is, on the contrary, calculated to kindle 
and to keep alive within us the hopes of what is yet 
to come. It stretches the understanding, and assists 
the imagination, and infuses the more confident 

1 Gal. iii. 17. 2 Luke x. 23, 24. Matt. xiii. 16. 



The sure Promises of God. 283 

assurance that God's purposes of love to His chap. 
creatures will never fail, but that " He is faithful •*■ 

who promised," and that He will be true to His 
word towards all those who believe and trust in 
Him ; that He will cause the Truth to prevail and 
triumph over every opposition, and the trials of 
His church to issue in unclouded happiness and 
unbroken peace. 

Relation of Genesis to the remaining Books of the Pentateuch.— 
The transition from Genesis to the other books of Moses is a tran- 
sition, for the most part, from patriarchal life and times to the 
next stage in the development of the great scheme, by which God, 
in His mysterious Providence, was preparing the world for the 
Incarnation and Kingdom of Jesus Christ. This was the establish- 
ment of the Theocracy among a people selected from the rest of 
mankind to be special channels for the transmission of Divine 
truth, and for the gradual disclosure of the Divine purposes. In 
the foregoing pages, though concerning ourselves chiefly with the 
earlier records, we have not failed to call attention to some features 
of the Jewish dispensation, and of the infant Theocracy as com- 
mitted to the administration of Moses. In considering the life 
and character of that remarkable servant of God, we have had 
occasion to anticipate some little of Jewish history, at least so far 
as it is developed in the remainder of the Pentateuch. This may, 
perhaps, be our excuse for having omitted so much that is inter- 
esting in the Patriarchal times, much, too, that by the glimpses 
afforded us of a very early period of civilisation, and the genuine 
traits which every where abound of a pastoral and primitive sim- 
plicity, affords undesigned witness to the genuineness of the nar- 
rative, and consequently would be useful in confirming that 
" veracity of the book of Genesis " for which we have been con- 
tending. Rebecca coming to draw water for her father's sheep, 
who was a great chieftain in Haran, — the simple loquacity of the 
old servant Eliezer (Gen. xxiv. 15 — 27), — Rachel being found in 
the employment and office of a shepherdess (Gen. xxix. 9), — and, 
several ages after that, the seven daughters of Jethro, who was a 



284: Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, prince as well as a priest of Midian,.. " keeping," in like manner, 
VHI. "their father's flocks," and " drawing water for the cattle" — 
(Exod. ii. 16), — Esau and Jacob dressing the venison at their 
own fire, and waiting upon their father (Gen. xxvii. 31), — the 
sons of Jacob taking their humble offerings into Egypt, — " Carry- 
down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, 
and myrrh, nuts and almonds" (Gen. xlii. 11); — such are some 
of the well-known incidents of patriarchal life, and they are cal- 
culated, more eloquently than words, to convince us that the record 
was drawn from the life, and founded in undoubted fact ; and this 
again, among other evidences, stamps its seal of truth upon the whole 
narrative in which these particulars occur. It has not, however, 
fallen within our limits to prosecute minutely this part of the 
Mosaic history. A gap has been left, rich in materials well cal- 
culated to help out our general argument, between the time of Adam 
and that of Noah, and again between Noah and the call of Abra- 
ham. But the preference has been purposely given to subjects 
presenting a wider scope for discussion, and about which difficulties 
are felt whose solution must always be matter of great interest, — 
difficulties in Ethnology, Early History, and Geology, together 
with some more strictly Theological questions which naturally 
occur. To these, it is hoped, due place has been given, and it 
has been found impracticable, compatibly with this object, to 
leave room for an orderly prosecution of the remaining subjects 
in Genesis. 

A late and eminent writer on the Pentateuch, under which 
term it was not his intention to include the book of Genesis, 
being solicited (as he tells us) by his friends to include that 
book, gives the following reasons for declining the task : " The 
history of the four last books of the Pentateuch forms one subject 
perfectly distinct from the history of the book of Genesis, except 
so far as it is connected with the account of the fall of man in the 
grand economy of grace. The evidence of the divine original of 
the Mosaic law may therefore be clearly exhibited without in- 
cluding the consideration of the facts recorded in the book of 
Genesis. I add, that in the natural order of reasoning, the divine 
mission of Moses should be proved by its peculiar evidence, before 
the truth of the antecedent facts can be decidedly admitted, be- 
cause the credibility of the facts recorded in this history must 



. Bible Lands and Oriental Literature. 285 

always chiefly rest on the authority of their inspired historian, CHAP. 
which I have here endeavoured to establish .... The great VIII. 
cause, however, why I have not attempted to comply with the 
suggestion of my friends is my inability to do so. The work 
they prescribe is on a subject of great importance and extent, and 
on which the daily increasing knowledge of Oriental history and 
literature, and the extension of physical and geological discoveries, 
are perpetually throwing new light." — Graves, On the Pentateuch, 
Introduction, pp. xii — xvi. It is evident that Dr. Graves looked 
to Oriental scholarship — probably to a learned comparison of the 
old traditional systems, the Vedahs and Sastras of the Hindoos, 
&c. — as one great means in store for illustrating the Mosaic annals 
of creation and subsequent events in sacred story. Cosmogonies 
of the ancients, and collections of the earliest national traditions 
handed down among the most celebrated peoples, have indeed been 
long before the world. 1 But the learned writer was looking, per- 
haps, for still greater light from this quarter ; and, indeed, it may be 
reserved for future investigations to supply the desideratum which 
he felt. The opening up of commerce in the East, and the im- 
proved relations of civilised Europe with India and China, seem 
likely enough to stimulate inquiry, and to lead to a deeper 
acquaintance with Oriental literature in the original tongues. 
The work of Sir Emerson Tennent gives already fair promise that 
such will be the case. At the same time, much caution will 

1 See Cumberland's Sancho- a general flood. Thus the Greeks 

niatho ; Slmckford's Connection ; began their world again with 

Stillingfleet, Orig. Sac. ; Maurice, Deucalion, after a tradition de- 

Inclian Antiquities ; Sir J. Emer- rived from Hierapolis, according 

son Tennent's Ceylon, its Natu- to Lucian; the Chaldseans from 

ral History, Antiquities, fye. In Xisuthrus, according to Berosus ; 

tracing the original of mankind the Hindoo mythology is said to 

in different countries, the ancients be in a great measure founded 

could do no more than make upon a similar tradition ; and, in 

them 'AvToxOovtg — the natural short, we may trace the deluge 

offspring of the soil — or else in the popular mythologies all 

ascribe them to the union of round the world. Vid. Le Clerc, 

Ovpavog and Tfj or of some other Notes on Grotiusde Veritate,\ih. i. 

elements, the Sun and Water, &c. c. 16 ; Bryan's Analysis of Ancient 

&c. But it is remarkable how Mythology; Harcourt's Doctrine 

almost universally their historians of the Deluge. 
fell back upon some tradition of 



286 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, always be required in instituting a comparison between the more 



VIII. 



sober and truthful relations of the Scripture narrative and uncer- 
tain traditionary legends, however adorned with poetry, and 
invested with the imaginary fascinations of an immemorial anti- 
quity. And, moreover, it seems probable that the most valuable 
aids to inquiry will, after all, be found to come more from the 
labours and researches of the traveller than from the subtle argu- 
ments of the philosopher. Voices from the tombs are now joining 
on every side with voices from the rocks, to' proclaim the Divine 
original of the Scripture records — to show, at least, (which is all 
that the advocates of inspiration ought reasonably to require,) that 
the sacred penmen so far enjoyed the privilege of the Divine co- 
operation as to be guarded from essential error in the substance of 
what they related, whether they collected the materials of it from 
human sources, or whether they received them by immediate 
illumination of the Spirit. These evidences from fact are most 
important collateral supports to the general truth of Scripture. 
They speak in clear and intelligible language to all, and tend to 
bring vividly to mind the reality of the whole narrative, whose 
minor circumstances are thus clearly established. And this 
reflects further upon the doctrines themselves. The circum- 
stances with which these are interweaved, — (the outward vehicle, 
as it were, in which they are wrapt up and conveyed to the 
mind,) — having themselves found ready admission to the reason 
and understanding, — having won their way to our acceptance 
from the incidental marks of their reality, — justly gain for the 
more mysterious parts of the revelation a proportionably more 
ready aDd respectful hearing; and the great practical end is 
attained, which seems to have constituted the great purpose of 
inspiration when the peculiar style and method were adopted, 
which we find so observable in the Scriptures, viz. of engrafting 
doctrine upon history, and combining the two in strict practical 
connection. 

From the remarks of Dr. Graves, it may further be inferred, 
that, if " the four last books of the Pentateuch" might justly be 
represented as " forming one subject perfectly distinct from the 
history of the book of Genesis," there can be no doubt that 
Genesis itself forms a subject distinct ffom the four remaining 
looks. With equal truth it may be affirmed, that, amidst the 



The Wadi Mokatteb. 287 

vast variety and amount of information which has been brought CHAP. 
home from various quarters, and which has poured its light upon VIII* 
the mysterious page of Scripture, no small share belongs par- 
ticularly to this book of Genesis. Here belongs much that has 
been discovered of the remains of Nineveh and of Babylon ; the 
very head, it may be, of Nimrod, and the gigantic spoils of those 
ancient cities. Here the hieroglyphic forms and characters, 
which were once regarded as hopelessly locked up against the 
art of man to open or decipher ; but which have found their 
interpreters in a Eawlinson, a Champollion, a Bunsen. It seems 
almost invidious to select names, where so many have joined the 
gallant band of travellers who have devoted themselves to the 
exploration of the East. Egypt has played its full part — has 
occupied, perhaps, the largest share in the wide field of anti- 
quarian interest. In the glance we have already had occasion 
to take at the early history of that wonderful country, it was 
unnecessary to do more than identify, as far as possible, the 
statements of profane historians illustrative of the Scripture 
narrative of the Exodus. In larger works the student will find 
himself well rewarded, while he pursues on the map of that 
country the probable track by which the children of Israel made 
their retreat from the house of bondage ; while he marches with 
them from the land of Goshen to the borders of the Eed Sea, and 
halts where they stood for a while encamped on the seaside, on 
the dread night when their pursuers should perish in its waters, 
hedged in between the sea and the mighty host of the Egyptians. 
We will just notice a circumstance which seems to throw light 
on a point somewhat disputed of late years among the learned. 

To the north of Mount Sinai there are found some very 
remarkable ancient inscriptions sculptured on the rocks, together 
with certain figures, which must either have been intended for 
hieroglyphic characters, or else been idly cut by the passing 
hand of the traveller, or whoever addicted himself to the pastime. 
Their history had long defied the skill of the philologist, when an 
ingenious theory was devised (see Mr. Foster's Primitive Lan- 
guage), which referred them to a peculiar mixed dialect, growing 
up probably during the sojourn in Egypt, and compounded of 
Egyptian and Arabic, (or Semitic). The majority of philologists, 
however (admitting their ignorance of the language), adhere to 



288 Veracity of Genesis. 

CHAP, the opinion that they are of greater antiquity than the time of 

— — the Exodus ; they think the figures (and certainly the crosses), 

might have been added by some later hand, the latter probably 
by some wandering pilgrims within the Christian era. Consider- 
ing that another u valley of inscriptions" (see on the map the 
Wadi Mokatteb) occurs on the Egyptian side of the water, — with 
similar characters engraven on the rocks, and the whole valley 
bearing precisely the same name, — occurring moreover on the 
same line of route between Memphis and the East (though it is 
scarcely probable that the Israelites themselves came by that 
way, for they most likely started from a point considerably 
northward of Memphis) ; yet, considering all the circumstances 
of similarity, may it not incline us to ascribe a similar origin to 
the two ? It might have been the work of those Arab tribes, 
from whom, it seems, the Shepherd Kings were descended, or 
it might have been purely an Egyptian work; for it is an 
undoubted fact that the Egyptians quarried the stone for many 
of their chief national works — their temples and their palaces — 
from the mines of Mount Sinai and the adjacent mountains ; and 
that the traces of their miners are still visible in that part of the 
Arabian peninsula. Setting apart this controverted point, how- 
ever, we cannot pass the mention of the Wadi Mokatteb of Mount 
Sinai without adverting to its important bearing on the whole 
Scripture account of the Exodus. When we find these valleys 
and mines of Arabia lying on the natural route by which 
caravans would travel or even armies march, on the great high- 
way between the adjacent continents of Africa and Asia, we 
cannot but be struck with the circumstance as giving great 
additional interest and reality to that account. For it shows 
that the scenes referred to were not some obscure unvisited deserts 
and corners of the earth, where no foot of traveller was ever 
likely to tread, and which might afford unlimited scope for imagi- 
nary difficulties and dangers. On the contrary, all was enacted 
on ground whose localities were patent to public observation 
and inquiry. Inaccuracies of description, though slipping almost 
accidentally from the pen, would have raised suspicion at once. 
There was, in short, but one way to be secure against the 
suspicion of fraud and imposture, and that was by following 
truth, and truth only, in every statement ; and now, when we 



General Illustrations of Scripture, 289 

find the sacred narrative in every respect answering to these CHAP. 
tests of historic and geographical research, we claim for its VIIL 
inspired historian, by this fresh argument, the character of clear 
and undeniable truth. And if this may be said of that portion 
of the narrative which concerns the Exodus and the wanderings 
of the Israelites in the wilderness, there is abundance of similar 
testimony, as we follow them on into the land of their settlement, 
and pursue the thread of the inspired record through the remain- 
ing period of their history. But here, as we are beginning to 
overstep the limits of the Mosaic portion of Scripture, we must 
bring our labours to an end. To those who are desirous of 
pursuing and improving this branch of the subject, we would 
recommend, among useful works of reference, particularly the 
following: — .Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols., 4to. ; 
Kitto's Bible Cyclopaedia, 2 vols., 8vo. ; Kitto's Pictorial Bible, 
3 vols., 8vo. ; Kitto's Pictorial History of Palestine, 2 vols., 8vo. ; 
Conybeare and Howson's Life and Travels of St. Paul, 2 vols., 
4to. ; Robinson's Biblical Researches in Palestine, 4 vols., 8vo. ; 
Foster's Primitive Language, 3 vols., 8vo. ; Stanley's Sinai and 
Palestine, 1 vol , 8vo. ; J. L. Porter's Five Years in Damascus, 
2 vols., 8vo. ; Osburn's Egypt from the Monuments, 2 vols., 8vo. ; 
Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, 2 vols., 8vo. ; The Book and 
its Mission, 1 vol., 8vo. ; Home's Critical Introduction of the 
Scriptures, 4 vols., 8vo. ; Scripture Manners and Customs, 
Christian Knowledge Society, 1 vol., 12mo. 



U 



Appendix, 



Appendix, 



KUKTZ'S HISTORY OF THE OLD COVENANT. 

The author regrets that the work of Dr. Kurtz did not come APPEN. 



into his hands in time to make that use of it which he could have Time of the 
wished. He has at the same time the satisfaction of knowing, xo us ' 
that any conclusions in which they may coincide, have been 
arrived at, on his part, by the independent exercise of his own 
judgment. It is impossible quite to pass over the points on 
which it might be desirable to consult further the opinions of 
Dr. Kurtz : 1. On the Egyptian question, and as regards the 
Exodus. Here, as might be imagined, the conclusions in a fore- 
going chapter are not quite in accord with those of Dr. Kurtz, 
yet the differences are comparatively immaterial, as the following 
brief analysis will show. On both hands it is agreed what was the 
condition and what the ruling dynasty in Egypt at the time of the 
Exodus. That the arrival of Abraham in Egypt must have fallen in 
the times, and during the reign, of the Hycsos kings is equally agreed. 
Where, it appears, we differ is in the time of Joseph's arrival ; and 
here the doctor sides with the most popular view, which is, that 
Joseph arrived before the extinction of the Hycsos dynasty. He, 
however, quite passes over one of the chief objections to this view, 
which is the utter silence of Scripture as to any remarkable change 
of dynasty after Joseph's time, as there must really have been, 
on the supposition of Joseph having arrived during the reign of 

u 3 



294 Appendix. 

APPEN. the Shepherds. We should, however, mention, that the brief re- 

Time of the mark of Scripture, " another king arose which knew not Joseph," 

Exodus. 

is supposed by Dr. Kurtz to allude to this change. His supposi- 
tion on this head leads him naturally to an earlier date of the 
Exodus ; and, accordingly, we find him placing it in the reign of the 
third Amenophis, instead of the Amenophis who was the father of 
Sethos and son of Eaamses ; which is simply to ignore the express 
authority of Manetho as given by Josephus : and so Dr. Kurtz 
himself allows (vol. ii. p. 411). It is, however, satisfactory to 
note, that he places the whole event in the seventeenth dynasty, 
very nearly, at least, about the same period as the reader will 
find assigned for it, by an entirely independent line of argument, 
in an earlier part of this work. (See Appendix Chap. II.) 
The reasons which led him to a Hycsos dynasty for the arrival 
of Joseph are satisfactory as far as they go ; but we should apply 
them rather to the arrival of Abraham, and, transferred to 
the time of that patriarch, we think them conclusive. When 
Joseph rose to power, there would not only have been the 
prestige of his descent from Abraham, but there was the recom- 
mendation of his own superior ability, as shown, in the first in- 
stance in the interpretation of the king's dream, and afterward 
more remarkably still hi the skill with which he governed the 
land as prime minister of Egypt, and found means to avert a 
terrible calamity by providing corn for the impending famine. 
Without these extraordinary recommendations, which were, indeed, 
equivalent to a supernatural interposition of Divine Providence, 
Joseph never would have been received, or would at any rate have 
been kept a prisoner in the dungeon. But taking those miracu- 
lous circumstances into account, there is nothing singular in the 
fact (though it might not have been in a Hycsos reign) of the 
" Israelitish tribes being made welcome, and the best provinces 



Kurtz's History of tlie Old Covenant. 295 

being allotted to them, and even the gates and keys of the whole APPEN. 
country being placed in their hands ; " — nothing singular in Life of 

J^Tqsgs 

" Joseph advising his brethren to tell Pharaoh, without hesita- 
tion, that they were nomads; " — nor in " the aged patriarch, Jacob, 
taking upon himself to bless the Egyptian king ; " — nor, " when 
Jacob died, in the whole of the court and the elders of the land 
of Egypt forming a funeral procession, with chariots and horse- 
men, in honour of the unclean Shepherd- chief, who was, notwith- 
standing, an abomination in their eyes." (See vol. iii. pp. 425-6.) 
2. The Life of Moses is treated throughout with great care; and 
many interesting disquisitions will be found as to the route of the 
children of Israel in traversing the wilderness, and all the circum- 
stances of their journey. Still more interesting are the author's 
remarks on the great objects then in view, of training up the 
chosen people for the important place they were to occupy in the 
chain of Providences, which was gradually leading up to the final 
establishment of Christianity. In particular, the reader should 
consult the account of the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness, 
iii. 344 — 358 ; the Lnstitution of the Sabbath (though here a 
little German prejudice peeps out), vol. ii. 112, iii. 43, and 
ibid. 313 — 317 (comparing vol. i. introduction, p. xxi.); the 
Route out of Egypt, ii. 123 — 129 ; and the Wanderings in the 
Wilderness, vol. iii. 360 — 380. 3. On the Origin of Languages, 
and the derivation from one stock of the various races of men, 
the author has not had the opportunity of consulting Dr. Kurtz. 
But having himself made it the study of many years, and con- 
sulted the best authors, he persuades himself they cannot be very 
far apart on this branch of the subject. Leaving this, therefore, 
he hastens on to a brief notice of that which comes last in the 
order of subjects, as above treated of, but which really yields to 
none in the interest with which it deserves to be regarded, viz. 

u4 



296 Appendix, 

APPEN. 4. The Acount of the Creation in Gen. I., and how far, in all 
Mosaic the chief particulars of the Mosaic record, the conclusions of Dr. 
Creation. Kurtz are in agreement with those of the foregoing chapters, it 
shall be left to the reader to decide from the following few extracts : 
" The Synagogue has rightly characterised even the historical 
books of the Old Testament as prophetical. But as revelation 
never supplies what man could have discovered without its aid, 
we do not find in the historical parts of the Bible (always except- 
ing Gen. i. and ii.) any hint that the writers had received the 
material of their narratives in a supernatural manner. Hence 
we conclude that the cooperation of the Holy Spirit consisted in 
this, that they were enabled to distinguish the true from the 
spurious in these traditions, and to understand the spiritual bear- 
ing of these facts. But beyond the boundaries of human ex- 
perience lies another development, and hence another history, 
on the one side embracing the past, and on the other the future. 
Only the Lord looks behind and before, beholding both the 
development which preceded the first appearance of man, and 
that which lies beyond the present generation. However different, 
these two histories are similar both as to the ground on which 
man is unacquainted with them, and the manner in which he may 
learn to know them. But how is this knowledge imparted? 
Once only — in Gen. i. to iii. — did God reveal to man what had 
taken place before his appearance ; but very frequently did He 
communicate events yet future. Now it seems to be a law of 
revelation, that the disclosure of the future is brought about by 
prophetic intuition. But as there is no essential difference in prin- 
ciple or otherwise, between a revelation of the future and one of 
the past, may we not assume that the latter had been communi- 
cated in the same manner in which we know the former has inva- 
riably been vouchsafed ? This supposition is abundantly confirmed 



Kurtz's History of the Old Covenant. 



297 



by the narrative under consideration. We notice in it a vividness APPEN. 



of perception and a pictorialness of description which almost Revelation 

. by prophe- 

necessarily leads us to conclude that the writer relates what he tic y s ; ow . 

had seen .... We maintain, then, that the narrator was in 

prophetic illumination, raised to the height of Divine autopsy ; 

that he beheld spiritually what took place before man existed, 

and then translated into words his vision." — History of the Old 

Covenant, vol. i. introd. p. xix. The reader might compare 

with this the observations above, at Chap. V. pp. 137, 138. ; 

Chap. VIII. 245 — 250, and notes. After giving his verdict (p. 

xxiii.) in favour of the literal sense of the word " day," as used 

in the account of the creation l , (observing, moreover, that the 

account itself appears to furnish the definition, where it says, v. 5, 

" God divided the light from the darkness ; and He called the 



1 Dr. Kurtz here gives himself 
credit for some originality in his 
definition of " day," or rather in 
his idea, that each of the " crea- 
tive days" began with the morning, 
and not with the evening ; be- 
cause (1) work naturally begins 
with " the light," and (2) because 
every thing in the sacred text 
seems to run in sequence of time. 
Thus God said, "Let there be 
light! and there was light. — 
God divided the light from the 
darkness. — It became evening, it 
became morning, — and a new day 
begins." Like many things, 
which authors think very special, 
we are unable to see much in the 
distinction. Where criticism will 
find real scope in this part of Dr. 
Kurtz's work will probably be in 
the very deep and abstruse 
reasoning with which he sup- 
ports the opinion, that the deso- 



lation of the u tohu vabohu^ state 
of the earth described (Gen. i. 2), 
was connected with the fall of 
the angels "who kept not their 
first estate " (Jude 6), and is 
to be accounted for by the ne- 
cessity which that fall had occa- 
sioned for some fearful visitation 
on the earth. " This view," he 
adds, " is very old, though not 
exactly known to the Fathers, 
who generally assert that man- 
kind were created to fill the gap 
left by the fall of the angels, 
while many of them thought 
that the race was to increase 
till the number of the redeemed 
should equal that of the fallen 
angels." The idea, however, that 
chaos was the consequence of the 
fall of the angels, we do not, as 
our author candidly acknowledges, 
find suggested by the Fathers. — 
See Kurtz, Introduction, p. lv. — lx. 



298 



Appendix. 



APPEN. 

The Six 
Creative 



light 'day,' and the darkness He called night,") he explains the 
Scripture narrative on a principle, of which the following is a kind 
of summary at p. lxvii. : — " We have already seen that the work of 
the six creative days had nothing to do with the creation of the 
earth, far less with that of the universe. Before it commenced, 
heaven and earth already existed, although the latter at least was 
as yet without light and life, ' tohu vabohu. 1 Our globe received 
its living organisms during the six creative days, and that in 
ascending scale. Earth gradually assumed its present form, dis- 
played its physical forces, received its inhabitants, and assumed its 
peculiar relation to the other heavenly bodies. Neither astronomy 
nor geology can hazard an opinion about the period requisite for 
such purposes. Astronomy may be right in maintaining that the 
fixed stars must have been in existence for hundreds of thousands 
of years. But it cannot possibly assert that sun, moon, and stars 
had regulated our earthly night and day prior to the fourth 
creative day. In order that their light might affect our earth, it 
was necessary not only that they should have light, but also that 
the earth should be susceptible of light, and astronomy can never 
dispute that this adaptation had taken place at the period fixed by 
the Bible. Similarly we may admit, so far as geology is concerned, 
that immense periods had preceded the present formation of the 
earth. These either occurred before or during the ' tohu vabohu.' 
Against such suppositions there is nothing in the Bible. But no 
geologist could ever convince us that the last preparation of the 
surface of the earth had required either more or less than six days. 
If any doubt could obtain on this point, it would rather be why 
the Omnipotent had not given to this earth in a moment its pre- 
sent form ? But the Fathers have already returned a satisfactory 
reply to this objection. As the earth itself was designed for man, 
so the duration and distribution of God's creative agency bore 



Kurtz's History of the Old Covenant 299 

special reference to man. God's work upon earth was to be a APPEN. 
type of the future activity of man. A second objection to the Realpur- 
Scripture narrative is derived from the supposed unequal distri- jsf aTr ative. 
bution of the creative work over the six days. This objection 
specially applies to the fourth day's work. While five whole days, 
it is said, were spent upon our poor earth, which is but a dot in 
the universe, all the other millions or perhaps billions of suns and 
worlds were finished in one day. But evidently this objection 
proceeds on the same misunderstanding as that which we have 
already refuted. If, in accordance with the real purport of the 
narrative, we understand that on the fourth day only the perma- 
nent relation between the earth and the stars was fixed, all 
the difficulties conjured up immediately vanish." Again : — 
" The organisms of the primeval world are not the animals 
and plants of the Mosaic cosmogony, but neither are they those 
of historical times, while the organisms of the Biblical narrative 
are those with which natural history presently makes us ac- 
quainted. Thus the supposed contradiction is removed. The 
types buried in the rocks were not destined to continue per- 
petually, or else have not attained their destination : they were 
not created for man, and have not been his contemporaries on 
earth. Long before he appeared they had become extinct, 
and were shut up in their rocky graves. Only after the lapse 
of six thousand years has man beheld their bones, and they 
now present an enigma which natural science will probably never 
solve, as if to convince us of the inadequacy of our powers at the 
very period when science pretends to be able to explain every- 
thing. Beyond doubt, the fossils of the rocks cannot represent 
those organisations whose creation the Bible relates. It speaks not 
of the Entozoa of geology ; refers only to those beings which 
were created for man, partly for his nourishment, and partly as 



300 Appendix, 

APPEN. means of, and aids to, his own peculiar activity. On the other 
Objections hand, geology does not treat of those creatures, which, according 
lico-geolo- to the Scriptures, were called forth on the third, fifth, and sixth 
&j days, nor can this science take notice of them, since their types 

were intended to continue and not to perish, and their families 
were not to be petrified in strata, but each individual was to decay 
in the ordinary manner, so that their bones have mostly passed 
away without leaving any trace " (p. cxxiii.). Lastly, Dr. Kurtz 
supports his general line of argument by the following principal 
considerations,in which he enumerates the principal reasons which 
decided him for the anti-geological interpretation (so to speak) 
of " the days; 1 ' — "We assert as strenuously as the other side, 
that an impartial comparison of the results of geology with the 
statements of Holy Writ, rightly understood, will prove that the 
two harmonise. But we cannot for that purpose adopt any 
method which could either do violence to the plain language of 
Scripture, or to the well-established conclusions of geology. But 
the common mode of harmonising errs in both respects. For (1.) 
It is evident that Scripture describes the creative days as natural 
and ordinary days (having ' evening and morning,' ' light and 
darkness ' ), while in order to identify the geological with the 
Biblical creation, it is necessary to represent them as periods of 
' Divine duration,' each comprising thousands, nay, perhaps 
1 millions of terrestrial years.' (2.) It is evident that we read 
only of one general inundation within the six creative days (Gen. 
i. 2 — 10), to which, on the third day, bounds were assigned which 
were not to be passed till the flood. But the above theory requires 
that we should suppose that a number of inundations had taken 
place in order to account for the numerous secondary and tertiary 
stratifications which are thought to have taken place on the fifth 
and sixth days. (3.) Scripture plainly states that the mountains 



Kurtz's History of the Old Covenant. 301 

of the earth existed at any rate on the third day. (See Ps. civ. 8.) APPEN. 

But this theory requires us to believe that the secondary and ter- Objections 
J L J to the Bib- 

tiary (if not the primary) strata and rocks had been formed on the Uco-geolo- 

fifth and sixth days. (4.) Scripture plainly states, that plants only, fy^ or „ 
and not animals of any kind, were created on the' third day, and 
animals only, but not trees and plants, on the fifth and sixth days. 
But according to this theory, these Biblical are the same as the 
geological periods of which each has both its plants and animals. 
(5.) It is evident that the Hexaemeron only speaks of three periods 
of organic creation, while geology counts as many as there are 
stratifications. Yet the above theory identifies the Biblical 
with the geological creations. (6.) Lastly, it is evident, on the 
one hand, that the flora and fauna of the primeval world had 
perished before man appeared, and hence could not have been 
destined to continue along with man on the earth ; and, on the 
other hand, that according to the clear and unequivocal statements 
of Scripture, the flora and fauna created during the six days were 
created for man, and destined to continue on earth along with 
him. Yet the above theory confounds those two kinds of flora 
and fauna." — Introduction, pp. cxxix. cxxx. 

These are somewhat dry and verbal criticisms ; but the admi- 
rable spirit which pervades the writings of Dr. Kurtz will appear 
from the following extract, with which we conclude : — " Our 
earth, compared with the other planets, has distinguishing fea- 
tures, which, however, are yet undeveloped germs concealed in 
the forms of lowliness and distorted through the curse of sin. 
We anticipate that these features will at last fully appear. We 
expect that in those times what at present appear as hostile con- 
trasts shall combine and cooperate; — that sin and death, and 
with them all their shadows and fruits, shall have passed away, 
and that the members of our solar system which at present are 



302 Appendix. 

APPEN. isolated, shall be united by bonds of harmony, communion, sym- 
The future P atn y) an( l love. Perhaps this will be realised in a manner 
ofCrea- analogous to what we witness in the heavens; perhaps those 
iwn ' worlds, which although now separated are so closely related, 

shall move in sacred harmony, perhaps they shall stand in imme- 
diate communion with one another ; perhaps the sea of ether 
belonging to our system, which at present is unillumined, shall 
be pervaded with light and afFord an i eternal sunshine,' uniting 
worlds as now it separates them, just as the luminous atmosphere 
of the heavens of the fixed stars binds together the worlds that 
move in it. 

11 But the distinguishing excellency of our earth will consist in 
this, that ransomed and glorified man, created in, and restored to 
the image of God, shall dwell there, and that here the Lord of 
Glory, who to all eternity has taken upon Himself their nature, 
shall make His abode among those whom He is not * ashamed to 
call brethren ;' — that He shall bring with Him upon earth that 
unfading inheritance of His Sonship, of which they are to be 
fellow-heirs ; that He shall establish among them the throne of 
His grace and power, of His glory and Majesty ; — and that He 
himself, the Uncreated Light, shall shine upon them with a 
brilliancy which no creature has yet beheld. But as to the con- 
ditions and changes which all this implies in the physical condi- 
tion of the earth and of our system, and in their cosmical relation 
to the rest of the universe, it becomes us in silence to await the 
arrangements which the great Creator shall make. Our earth is 
unique in its present state of humiliation ; it will be unique in its 
future exaltation. As man is made lower than the angels, and 
yet is the l embryo of the highest of all creatures,' so our earth 
also is made lower than the celestial worlds, and yet is the 
' noblest germ in creation.' As Judsea was the least and most 



Kurtz's History of the Old Covenant 303 

despised country of the earth, and yet the ' glorious land ' (Dan. APPEN. 
xi. 16, 41) ; as Bethlehem was least among the thousands of y^ e g\ or i- 
Israel (Mic. v. 2), and yet the Sun of Kighteousness arose there *£*£** my 
(Matt. iv. 2) ; so our solar system is the Judaea of the universe, E art ' 1 - 
and our insignificant earth the Bethlehem of this Holy Land — 
poor and despised, yet precious above all. As in that prophetic 
dream, sun, moon, and stars bent in lowly obeisance before 
Joseph, who yet was the least among his brethren, so shall they 
also make obeisance to our earth, although it is one of the 
smallest worlds in the universe. When at first Jehovah 
founded the earth, the morning-stars looked on with songs of 
praise ; when the Eternal Word, full of grace and truth, left the 
throne of glory to clothe Himself with our nature, the hosts 
of heaven burst forth into this hymn, l Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.'' When 
again the Son of man shall return in the clouds, surrounded with 
all the glory of His eternal Godhead, to renew heaven and earth, 
and to consummate all things, shall those messengers of his power 
and goodness, in whose presence even now there is joy at every 
new progress of the kingdom of God upon earth (Luke xv. 7), 
behold with rapturous delight the unfolding of that ' mystery of 
godliness,' into which they now ' desire to look ;' and in louder 
tones and loftier strains shall then enchoir their never-ending 
Hallelujah (Eev. v. 12, 13)." — Kurtz, History of the Old Covenant 
Introd. pp. cii. ciii. T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1859. 



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